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NON-CHRISTIAN RELIGIOUS 
SYSTEMS. 



HINDUISM 



BY 

MONIER WILLIAMS, CLE., D.C.L, M.A. 

FELLOW OF BALLIOL COLLEGE ; 

HON. DOCTOR IN LAW OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALCUTTA ; 

HON. MEMBER OF THE ASIATIC SOCIETIES OF BENGAL, BOMBAY, AND 

AMERICA ; 

BODEN PROFESSOR OF SANSKRIT IN THE UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD. 



WITH MAP. 



PUBLISHED UNDER THE DIRECTION OF 

THE COMMITTEE OF GENERAL LITERATURE AND EDUCATION 

APPOINTED BY THE SOCIETY FOR PROMOTING 

CHRISTIAN KNOWLEDGE. 



NINTH THOUSAND. 



LONDON : 
SOCIETY FOR PROMOTING CHRISTIAN KNOWLEDGE, 

NORTHUMLERLAND AVENUE, CHARING CROSS, W.C. ; 

43, QUEEN VICTORIA STREET, E.C. ; 
26, ST. GEORGE'S PLACE, HYDE PARK CORNER, S.W. 

BRIGHTON : 135, north street. 
New York: E. & J. B. YOUNG & CO. 



J- 



/zo/ ^ 

CONTENTS 



CHAP. K A • ' " ' "^ PAGH 

I. — lNTR6DUCfORY .; I 

II. — The Vedic Hymns 17 

III. — The Brahmanas and the Sacrificial Sys- 
tem 33 

IV. — The Upanishads and Brahmanical Philo- 
sophy 43 

V. — Brahmanical Law, Domestic Usages, and 

Caste 53 

VI. — Tre Buddhistic Movement, and its Influ- 
ence on Brahmanism 72- 

VII. — Development of Hinduism, and the Doc- 
trine OF Triple Manifestation 83 

VIII. — Development of 'Saivism, Vaishnavism, and 

THE Doctrine of Incarnation 97 

JX. — The Doctrine of Faith, as developed in 

THE PURANAS AND T'aNTRAS II5 

X. — Medieval and Modern Sects 134 

XL — Modern Castes 151 

-^_ XII. — Modern Idol - worship. Sacred Objects, 

ts Holy Places and Times 165 

*^^ Appendix :— 

Distinctive Features of the Six Schools of 

Philosophy 187 

Eclectic School — The Bhagavad-gita 206 

JAINISM 221 

The CaRvakas 224 

Index 228 



HINDUISM. 

CHAPTER I. 

INTRODUCTORY. 

That part of the great Ary^n race which immigrated 
from Central Asia, through the mountain passes into 
India, settled first in the districts near the river Sindhu 
(now called the Indus). 

The Persians pronounced this word Hindhu, and 
named their Aryan brethren Hindus. The Greeks, 
who probably gained their first ideas of India from 
the Persians, dropped the hard aspirate, and called 
the Hindus 'U>doi. 

After the Hindu Aryans had spread themselves 
over the plains of the Ganges, the Persians gave the 
name Hindustan, or ' abode of the Hindus,^ to the 
whole district between the Panjab and Benares, and 
this name is commonly used, especially by the 
Musalmans, for a still more extended region, as far 
as the Vindhya mountains, and even, less correctly, 
for other parts of India. 

The classical name for India, however, as usually 
employed in Sanskrit literature and recognized by the 
whole Sanskritic races, is Bhdi'ata or Bharata-vaisha 
(sometimes Bhdrata-kha?ida or Kicmdrikd-khanda)^ 



2 HINDUIS^r. 

* the country of Bharata,' — a king who appears to 
have ruled over a large extent of territory in ancient 
times. Manu's name for the whole central region 
between the Himalaya and Vindhya mountains is 
Arydvarta, ' abode of the Aryans,' and this is also a 
classical appellation for that particular portion of 
India. Another name for the whole of India, occur- 
ring in Sanskrit poetr}-, is Jamhii-dvipa. Strictly, 
however, this last is merely a poetical name for the 
whole earth, of which India was thought to be the 
most important part. 

The population of India in 1881 amounted to 
253,891,821. So immense an assemblage of beings 
does not, of course, form one nation. India is almost 
a continent, like Europe. From the earliest times its 
richness has attracted successive immigrants and 
invaders from over-populated and poorer regions, 
Asiatic and European. Its inhabitants differ as much 
as the various continental races, and speak languages 
equally distinct. 

First came the primitive immigrants— some Scy- 
thian, some Mongolian in their origin — and all falling 
under the general head of what are called Turanian 
races, who, migrating from Central Asia and the steppes 
of Tartary and Tibet, entered India by successive 
incursions — many of them through the passes 
adjoining the Panjab in the North-west, and others 
through those North-eastern mountain-ravines which 
mark the course of the river Brahma-putra. 

The great Dravidian race of the South of India 
(probably symbolized by the Ravanas and Vibhishanas 
of epic poetry) represents the most powerful of these 



HINDUISM. ^ 

early immigrants, and must not be confounded with 
the more uncivilized aboriginal tribes, inhabiting the 
hills and the jungles of India, and symbolized in 
poetry by monkeys. 

Next descended on the plains of Hindustan the 
first overflowings of the mighty tide of Aryan immi- 
gration, caused by the rapid growth and expansion of 
that primeval family, who called themselves Ar)-a, or 
* noble,' and spoke a language the common source 
of Sanskrit, Prakrit, Zand, Persian, and Armenian in 
Asia ; and of the Hellenic, Italic, Keltic, Teutonic, 
and Slavonic languages in Europe. Starting at a 
later period than the primitive Turanian races, but, 
like them, from some part of the tableland of Central 
Asia — probably the region surrounding the sources of 
the Oxus, near Bokhara — they separated into distinct 
nationalities and peopled Europe, Persia, and India. 
The Hindu Arj^ans, after detaching themselves from 
the general body of emigrants, settled themselves 
down as agriculturists (probably at some period 
between 2000 and 1500 years B.C.) in the districts 
surrounding the Indus, the five rivers of the Pan- 
jab, and the sacred Sarasvati — these seven rivers 
being called Sapta Sindhu (in Zand, Hapta Heiidit). 
Thence, after a time, they overran by successive 
irruptions the plains of the Ganges, and spread them- 
selves over the region called Aryavarta, occupying 
the whole of Central India, and either coalescing 
with, and, so to speak, Ar}^anizing the primitive 
inhabitants they found there, or driving all who 
resisted them to the south and to the hills. They 
were the first promoters of that moral and intellectual 



4 HINDUISM. 

progress and civilization in India, of which the 
Dravidian immigrants were the pioneers. 

But India, even after its occupation by the great 
Aryan race, yielded itself up an easy prey to every 
powerful invader. Accordmg to Herodotus, it was 
subjugated by Darius Hyslaspes. This conquest 
probably occurred about 500 years B.C. It must 
have been very partial, and did not extend beyond 
the plains of the Indus, including the Panjab 
and Sindh. It was probably followed by consider- 
able subsequent trade and traffic between Persia and 
India; and to this commercial intercourse may be 
due the introduction into India of many new ideas — 
religious and philosophical — and perhaps, also, of 
the Phoenician alphabet, with which that of some 
of the Asoka edicts and inscriptions (about 250 B.C.) 
is now generally thought to be connected. 

The expedition of Alexander the Great to the 
banks of the Indus, about 327 B.C., is a better 
authenticated fact. To this invasion is due the first 
trustworthy information obtained by Europeans con- 
cerning the nortn-westerly portion of India and the 
region of the five rivers, down which the Grecian 
troops were conducted in ships by Nearchus. Me- 
gasthenes, who was the ambassador of Seleukos 
Nikator (Alexander's successor, and ruler over the 
whole region between the Euphrates and Indus, 
B.C. 312) at the court of Candra-gupta (Sandro- 
kottus), in Pataliputra (Patna, or UaXijSodpa), during 
a long sojourn in that city collected further informa- 
tion, of which Strabo, Pliny, Arrian, and others 
availed themselves. « 



HINDUISM. 5 

The next immigrants, after a long interval, were the 
Parsis. This small tribe of Persians were driven from 
their native land by the Muhammadan conquerors 
under the Khalif Omar in the seventh century of our 
era. Adhering to the ancient religion of Persia, which 
resembled that of the Veda (viz. the worship of one 
God, symbolized by and manifested in the elements, 
especially fire), and bringing with them the records 
of their faith, the Zand-Avasta^ of their prophet Zo- 
roaster, they settled down in the neighbourhood of 
Surat about iioo years ago, and became great mer- 
chants and shipbuilders. For two or three centuries 
we know little of their histor3^ Their religion pre- 
vented them from making proselytes, and they never 
multiplied within themselves to any extent, nor did 
they amalgamate with the Hindu population, so that 
even now their number only amounts to about seventy 
thousand. Nevertheless, from their busy, enterprising 
habits, in which they emulate Europeans, they form 
an important section of the population of Bombay 
and Western India. 

Then came the Muhammadans (Arabs, Turks, Af- 
ghans, Moguls, and Persians), who entered India at dif- 
ferent times. They now number forty-one millions, or 
about one-sixth of the entire population ; but a large 



• More properly Avastd-Zand, text and commentary. The 
term Zand, which meant commentary, was afterwards applied to 
the language in which the Parsi sacred books were written. 
This Zand language is only separated by a short interval from 
that of one set of the cuneiform inscriptions, which again was 
closely followed by Pahlavl. 



6 HINDUISM. 

number of them are descendants of Hindus converted 
to Islam. Although they became politically supreme, 
they were never able to supplant the Hindus, as these 
had done their predecessors. Moreover, it was the 
policy of the Muhammadan conquerors to bend in 
many points to the prejudices of their Indian subjects. 
Hence the Muslims of India became to some extent 
Hinduized, and in language, habits, and character took 
from the Hindus more than they imparted. 

Nor has the Hindu element lost its ascendency in 
India, notwithstanding the accession of European in- 
gredients from Portugal, Holland, Denmark, France, 
and finally England. Albeit the English have spread 
themselves over the whole countr}^, and achieved a 
political supremacy greater than that which once be- 
longed to the Musalmans, yet they have blended far 
less with the inhabitants. Oil and water do not keep 
more distinct than do the rulers and the ruled at pre- 
sent in India. The great bulk of the population is 
still essentially Hindu, and the moral influence of 
what may be called the Indo-Aryan race is still para- 
mount. Nevertheless, this race by no means forms 
one united nation. Differences distinguish it, as great 
as those w^hich once divided and still distinguish 
European Aryans. 

Many causes have combined to produce such di- 
versities. The Indo-Aryans entered India by suc- 
cessive incursions, so that the earlier arrivals differ 
from the later as widely as Greeks and Romans from 
Kelts and Teutons. Then, variety of climate has had 
its effect in modifying character. Moreover, contact 
with the non-Aryan aboriginal races and with Mu- 



HINDUISM. 7 

hammadans and Europeans has affected the Aryans 
variously in different parts of India. 

As to the non-Aryan races, these also present great 
differences. They are now generally divided into the 
two classes of Dravidians and Kolarian aborigines, 
both of which races belong to the division of the 
world's inhabitants loosely called Turanian ; but the 
first, as already hinted, are by far the most important, 
from their having attained an independent civilization, 
and from their having become either wholly or par- 
tially Hinduized in religion, manners, and usages, 
jvhile the Kolarians continue still in their uncivilized 
aboriginal condition. 

Reckoning, therefore, Aryans and non-Aryans, and 
taking difference of speech as marking and perpe- 
tuating separation of populations, though not as ne- 
cessarily determining distinction of race, we are able 
to distinguish fourteen separate peoples in India, 
constituting what might almost be called fourteen 
separate nationalities. The following are the fourteen 
different languages which mark them : — 

1. Hindi, which we may calculate as spoken by 
about one hundred million persons in Hindustan 
proper, including the High Hindi and the Muham- 
madan form of it (mixed with Persian and Arabic, 
called Hindustani), and various other Hindi dialects, 
such as Braj, Kanauji, Mewari, Old Purbi, Awadhi, 
Bhojpuri, and the Manvari of the district of Jodhpur 
(the most extensive of all the Rajput states), which 
last dialect is perhaps chiefly deserving of notice. 

2. BeJigdll^ spoken by about thirty-nine millions in 
Bengal. 



8 HINDUISM. 

3. Mardthi, spoken by about seventeen millions in 
Maharashtra in the Dekhan, including a dialect of it 
in the Konkan, known as Konkani. 

4. GuJardfJ, spoken by about nine millions and a 
half in Gujarat. 

5. Paiijdbl^ spoken by about fourteen millions in 
the Panjab. 

6. Kdsmlri^ by nearly two millions in Kasmir. 

7. Stndhz, spoken by about two millions in Sindh. 

8. Oriya, spoken by about seven millions in Orissa. 
The foregoing eight belong to distinct divisions of 

the Aryan race, which may be called Indo-Aryan. 

Next, taking the non-Aryans, we have six other differ- 
ences of race, which we may also mark by the names 
of their languages. In the first place, the four great 
Dravidian races (numbering nearly forty-six million 
persons), as follows :^ 

9. Tajnil, spoken by about thirteen millions, begin- 
ning with the northern portion of Ceylon, and extend- 
ing from Cape Comorin northward along the south 
of Travancore, and what is called the Karnatic ; that 
is, along the southern part of the Coromandel coast 
to about a hundred miles north of Madras. 

10. Malaydla/n, almost a dialect of Tamil, spoken 
by nearly five millions in Travancore and along the 
southern portion of the Malabar coast. 

11. Telugu, called from its softness the Italian of 
India, spoken by about seventeen miUions, from a Hne 
north of Madras, along the northern part of the Coro- 
mandel coast, or Northern Circars, and over part of 
the Nizam's territory. 

12. Ka7iarese, spoken by rather more than eight 



HINDUISM. 9 

millions in Mysore, in the southern portion of the 
Bombay Presidency, in Kanara, and part of the 
Malabar coast. 

There are two semi-cultivated Dravidian dialects, 
viz. the Tulu, spoken in a small district of Kanara, 
and the Koorg or Kodagu, spoken by only 150,000 
persons in the hill district to the west of Mysore, 
which scarcely merit enumeration as languages. 

Then comes the chief uncultivated Dravidian lan- 
guage, viz. — 

13. Gond, spoken by nearly two million abori- 
gines,^ divided into clans, some of whom are almost 
savages j while others are comparatively civilized, 
inhabiting Gondwana in the central provinces. The 
language of the Gond race has been lately system- 
atized and expressed in Devanagari characters. 

The other uncultivated Dravidian dialects, viz. — 
Oraon, Rajmahal, Khond, Toda and Kota, belong 
to insignificant tribes rather than to races. 

Lastly come the wholly uncultivated and barbarous 
non-Aryan and non-Dravidian dialects, called, — 

14. Kolarian, belonging to the Kols, inhabiting 
the plateau of Chota Nagpar and numbering more 
than three millions. They speak about seven rude 
dialects, of which the best known are those of the 
Kols, the Juangs (the most primitive tribe in all 
India), the Santals, the Mundas, and the Hos. 

In the above enumeration are not reckoned the 



' It does not follow that the Gonds are Dravidian because 
their language is so, any more than that the Cornish people are 
of the Enghsh race because they have adopted our language. 
Dr. Caldwell is my authority for most of these numbers. 



lO HINDUISM. 

languages which belong, so to speak, to the outer 
fringe of India proper, e.g. the Pashtu or Pakhtu of 
Afghanistan, the Nepali or Nepalese of Nepal, the 
Asamese of Asam, the Burmese of British Burmah, 
and the Sinhalese of Ceylon ; besides almost count- 
less dialects spoken by tribes inhabiting the mountains 
of Nepal, Bhutan, and Asam (some of them coming 
under what are called the Himalaic family, and more 
or less connected with Tibetan), making, according to 
Mr. Cust, no less than 559 languages and dialects, 
cultivated and uncultivated, in the whole of India 
and its bordering regions. 

But, besides the separation caused by difference of 
race and language, the divisions and subdivisions 
of the classes of society within each of the more 
civilized and cultivated of these several populations 
crystallized more rapidly in India than in Europe, and 
with far harder lines of demarcation. Even in dis- 
tricts where the Hindus are called by one name, and 
make use of one speech, caste regulations have ope- 
rated to break them up into an infinite number of 
independent communities, each priding itself on main- 
taining its individuality and exclusiveness. 

The question then arises how such differences of 
race, language, and social usages have affected reli- 
gious creed. It is remarkable that with all their 
diversities, the Hindu populations throughout India 
have a religious faith which, preserved as it is in one 
language and one literature, furnishes a good evi- 
dence of the original unity of the Indo-Aryan immi- 
grants, while it faithfully reflects the present diversi- 
fied character of the vast country in which it prevails. 



HINDUISM. II 

It is a creed based on an original, simple, pantheistic 
doctrine, but branching out into an endless variety 
of polytheistic superstitions. like the sacred fig-tree 
of India, which from a single stem sends out nu- 
merous branches destined to send roots to the ground 
and become trees themselves, till the parent stock is 
lost in a dense forest of its own offshoots, so has 
this pantheistic creed rooted itself firmly in the 
Hindu mind, and spread its ramifications so luxu- 
riantly that the simplicity of its root-dogma is lost in 
an exuberant outgrowth of monstrous mythology. 

That we may at once briefly formulate this lead- 
ing dogma, we cannot do better than give its own 
formula of three words, as stated by its own philo- 
sophers, thus, — Ekam eva advittyain, ' There is but 
one Being, no second ' ; nothing really exists but the 
one Universal Spirit called Brahman, and whatever 
appears to exist separately from that Spirit is mere 
illusion. This is the uncompromising creed of true 
Brahmanism. This, according to the orthodox Hindu 
philosophy, is the only true Veda. This, at least 
according to the belief of the generality of educated 
Hindus, is the only true knowledge to which the Veda 
leads. 

Popular Hinduism, on the other hand, though 
supposed to accept this creed as the way of true 
knowledge {Jfidna-mdrgd) which it admits to be the 
highest way of salvation, adds to it two other inferior 
ways : — 

I St. Belief in the efficacy of sacrifices, rites, 
penances, and austerities, which is the Karma-mdrga, 
*way of works.' 

c 



i7 



12 HINDUISM. 

2nd. Devotion to personal deities, which is the 
Bhaktt-??idrga, ' way of love and devotion ' (the term 
bhakticouts^ondmg to the Upasana of the Upanishads). 

Moreover, to account for its polytheism, idol-wor- 
ship, and system of caste distinctions, popular Hin- 
duism supposes that the one Universal Being amuses 
himself by illusory appearances ; that he manifests 
himself variously, as light does in the rainbow ; and 
that all visible and material objects, good and bad, 
including gods, demons, demi-gods, good and evil 
spirits, human beings and animals, are emanations 
from him, and are ultimately to be reabsorbed into 
his essence. 

Hence it may easily be surmised that the road con- 
necting the true knowledge and the popular doctrine 
must have many windings. And it may with truth be 
asserted that no description of Hinduism can be ex- 
haustive which does not touch on almost every reli- 
gious and philosophical idea that the world has ever 
known. 

Starting from the Veda, Hinduism has ended in 
embracing something from all religions, and in pre- 
senting phases suited to all minds. It is all-tolerant, 
all-compliant, all-comprehensive, all-absorbing. It has 
its spiritual and its material aspect, its esoteric and 
exoteric, its subjective and objective, its rational and 
irrational, its pure and its impure. It may be compared 
to a huge polygon, or irregular multilateral figure. It 
has one side for the practical, another for the severely 
moral, another for the devotional and imaginative, 
another for the sensuous and sensual, and another 
for the philosophical and speculative. Those who rest 



HINDUISM. 13 

in ceremonial observances find it all-sufficient ; those 
who deny the efficacy of works, and make faith the 
one requisite, need not wander from its pale; those 
who are addicted to sensual objects may have their 
tastes gratified ; those who delight in meditating on 
the nature of God and man, the relation of matter 
and spirit, the mystery of separate existence, and the 
origin of evil, may here indulge their love of specula- 
tion. And this capacity for almost endless expansion 
causes almost endless sectarian divisions even among 
the followers of any particular line of doctrine. 

In unison with its variable character and almost 
universal receptivity, the religious belief of the Hindus 
has really no single succinct designation. Looking at 
it in its pantheistic aspect, we may call it Brahmanism ; 
in its polytheistic development, Hinduism ; but these 
are not names recognized by the natives. 

If, then, such all-comprehensive breadth and di- 
versity are essential features of Hinduism, is it pos- 
sible to give a concise description of it which shall be 
intelligible and satisfactory? Only one guide to its 
intricacies exists. 

India, though it has, as we have seen, more than 
five hundred spoken dialects, has only one sacred lan- 
guage and only one sacred literature, accepted and 
revered by all adherents of Hinduism alike, however 
diverse in race, dialect, rank, and creed. That lan- 
guage is Sanskrit, and that literature is Sanskrit litera- 
ture — the only repository of the Veda or ' knowledge' 
in its widest sense ; the only vehicle of Hindu theo- 
logy, philosophy, law, and mythology ; the only mirror 
in which all the creeds opinions, customs, and usages 
c 2 



14 HINDUISM. 

of the Hindus are faithfully reflected ; and (if we may 
be allowed a fourth metaphor) the only quarry whence 
the requisite materials may be obtained for improv- 
ing the vernaculars, or for expressing important reli- 
gious and scientific ideas. 

In Europe literature changes with language. Each 
modern dialect has its own literature, which is the 
best representative of the present religious, social, and 
intellectual condition of the people. To know the 
Italians, we need not study Latin, when their modern 
literature is at our command. But the literature of 
the Hindu vernacular dialects (except, perhaps, that 
of Tamil) is scarcely yet deserving of the name. In- 
most cases, it consists of mere reproductions of the 
Sanskrit. To know the Hindus, to understand their 
past and present condition, to reach their very heart 
and soul, we must study Sanskrit literature. It is, in 
truth, even more to India than classical and patristic 
literature was to Europe at the time of the Reforma- 
tion. It gives a deeper impress to the Hindu mind, 
so that every Hindu, however unlettered, is uncon- 
sciously affected by it. 

There are, however, certain portions of Sanskrit 
literature which are, par excellence, sacred, and these 
fall under the two grand heads of Sriiti and Smj;iii. 

Sniti — 'that which is directly heard or revealed' 
— includes the three portions of the Veda, viz. Man- 
tra, Brahmana, and Upanishad, the last being the 
source of the Darsanas or systems of philosophy. 

It is equivalent to direct revelation, and is believed 
to have no human author. 

Siuriii, ' that which is remembered and handed 



HINDUISM. 15 

■down by tradition/ though beUeved to be founded on 
this direct revelation, is thought to have been delivered 
by human authors. In its widest acceptation Smriti 
may be said to denote almost the whole of Post-Vedic 
literature, under four heads : (a) the six Vedangas 
{viz., I. the Kalpa, or Srmita-sTiiras, v/hich are rules 
for applying the Mantra and Brahmana to Vedic 
sacrifices ; 2, Sikshd, or the science of pronuncia- 
tion; 3. Chafidas, or metre; 4. Nirukta, or exposi- 
tion of the Veda; 5. Vydkarana, or grammar; 6. 
Jyoiisha, or astronomy) ; (b) the Smarta-sutras, under 
the two divisions of Grihya-suiras, or rules relating 
to domestic rites ; and Sdmaydcdrika-sfufras, relating 
to conventional usages ; (c) the Dharma-sastras, or 
'Law-books,' especially the laws of Manu, Yajna- 
valkya, and other so-called inspired lawgivers, sup- 
posed to have grown out of the Smarta-sutras ; (d) the 
Bhakti-sastras, including the Itihdsas^ or ' legendary 
poems,' viz., the great epic poem called Maha- 
bharata, and the other great epic called Ramayana 
(though the latter is rather a Kdvya by a known 
human author, than an Itihasa, attributed to super- 
human authorship) ; and including also the eighteen 
Purdfias, or ancient legendary histories, with their 
train of eighteen Inferior Puranas ( Upapurdnas), and 
subsequent Tantras. 

Although it is not part of our present plan to 
describe in detail all these divisions of Sanskrit litera- 
ture, yet to understand the various phases through 
which Hinduism has passed, it is essential to have 
some knowledge of the principal works under four 
departments — viz., I. The three portions of the Veda, 



1 6 HINDUISM. 

Mantra, Brahmana, and Upanishad. II. The Dar- 
sanas, or systems of philosophy. III. The Dharma- 
^astras. IV. The Bhakti-sastras. The principal 
works under these four heads are the best exponents- 
of the different periods of development through which 
the Hindu religious mind has passed, and which, 
together, make up Hinduism. The hymns of the 
Veda are the expression of that early stage of reli- 
gious progress which may be called physiolatiy ; the 
Brahmanas represent ritualism and sacrifice ; the 
Upanishads and Darsanas represent rationalistic and 
pantheistic philosophy ; Manu, Yajnavalkya, and the 
law-books represent caste and domestic usages ; the 
Itihasas, Puranas, and Tantras represent the principle 
of love for and devotion to personal gods. No ac- 
count of Hinduism can be satisfactoiy which is not 
accompanied with translations of occasional passages 
from some of these representative works. 



HINDUISM. 17 

CHAPTER 11. 

THE VEDic HYMNS {Mantras). 

The word Veda (meaning ' knowledge ') is a term 
applied to divine unwritten knowledge, imagined to 
have issued like breath from the sdf-existent Being 
called BraJwian, and thought to be itself self-existent. 
Hence the Veda is not unfrequently itself called 
BraJiman, which word may mean either 'the uni- 
versally diffused essence,' or else ' the spirit of devo- 
tion permeating the human mind ' or ' divine spiritual 
knowledge.' 

This divine knowledge was also connected with 
Sabda, or articulate sound (thought to be eternal), 
and hence sometimes regarded as an eternal voice 
i^ac) heard by certain holy men called Rishis ; or, 
again, as eternal words actually seen by them as well 
as heard.^ Bythem the Divine knowledge — thus super- 
naturally received through the ear and eye— was trans- 
mitted, not in writing, but by constant oral repetition, 
through a succession of teachers, who claimed to 
be its rightful recipients, and were thence called 
Brdhmans, that is to say, the repositories both of 
the divine word, and of the spirit of devotion or prayer. 



* Hence Rishi is said to be for Drishi, which is from the root 
dris, 'to see.' Of course, this is a mere fanciful tlieoiy. The 
poets themselves frequently hint that the Mantras are their own 
composition 



l^ HINDUISM. 

Be it noted that we have here a theory of inspira- 
tion higher even than that advanced by Muhammad 
in explaining the origin of the Kuran. We may also 
note that this idea of an ex emal supernatural reve- 
lation is at the very root of Hinduism, and is, indeed, 
ingrained in the whole Hindu system. The first 
idea, however, was not that of a written or book 
revelation. It is very true that revealed knowledge 
was ultimately written down, but even then the 
reading of it was not encouraged. 

Our first step, therefore, in attempting a description 
of Hinduism must be to give some notion of the con- 
tents of the Veda. To clear the ground, we begin by 
separating it into the following three quite distinct 
subdivisions, all three coming under the general head 
of Sriiti, ' that which is heard or revealed.' 

1. Mantra^ prayer and praise, embodied in texts 
and metrical hymns. 

2. BrdJunatia, or ritualistic precept and illustra- 
tion written in prose. 

3. Upanishad, mystical or secret doctrine, appended 
to the aforesaid Brahmana, and written in prose and 
occasional verse. 

To begin with the Mantra portion. By Mantra 
(literally, 'the instrument of conveying thought') is 
meant any inspired speech or sacred text. 

The term is usually applied to those prayers, invo- 
cations, and hymns which were addressed to certain 
deifications of the forces of nature, and ultimately 
arranged in five Samhitas or collections. Though 
some of the hymns were the property of the Aryan 
race before they separated, they must have been 



HINDUISM. 1 9 

collected and handed down to us from a period 
after the Indian branch of the great Indo-European 
race had finally settled down in the Panjab and 
Northern India. Sanskrit literature, embracing as it 
does nearly every branch of knowledge, is entirely 
deficient in one department. It is wholly destitute 
of trustworthy historical records. Hence, little or 
nothing is known of the lives of ancient Indian 
authors, and the date of their most celebrated works 
cannot be fixed with certainty. A fair conjecture, 
however, may be arrived at by comparing the most 
ancient with the more modern compositions, and 
estimating the period of time required to effect the 
changes of structure and idiom observable in the 
language. In this manner we may be justified in 
assuming that the hymns of the Veda were probably 
composed by a succession of poets at different dates 
between 1500 and 1000 years B.C. 

Though very unequal in poetical merit, and con- 
taining many tedious re^Detitions and puerilities, they 
are highly interesting and important, as embodying 
some of the earliest religious conceptions of the 
Hindus, and throwing light on the earliest history 
and social condition of the Indo- Aryan race. 

They are comprised in five principal Samhitas, or 
collections of Mantras, called respectively Ric, Yajus 
(containing two Samhitas, Taittiriya and Vajasaneyin), 
Saman, and Atharvan. Of these, the Samhita of the 
Ric or Rig-veda, containing 10 17 hymns, is the oldest 
and most important. It is a collection of songs in praise 
of the personified elements. It is not arranged for 
any ritual purposes, and it includes hymns, many of 



20 HINDUISM.. 

which may have been sung by our Aryan forefathers 
before they settled in India. 

The Atharva-veda, on the other hand, is generally- 
held to be the most recent, and is, perhaps, the most 
interesting collection. Though some of its hymns 
are mere repetitions of those in the Rig-veda, it 
deserves to be called a separate original collection. 
It had its origin in the growth of a superstitious belief 
in the power of evil demons, and its verses, including 
those introduced from the Rig-veda, are used in the 
present day as magical spells and incantations for 
imprecating or averting evils. 

The two so-called Sarnhitas or collections of the 
Yajur-veda or Sacrificial Veda (viz. the Taittiriya and 
Vajasaneyin or Black and White Yajus), borrow 
largely from the Rig-veda, and are merely hymns and 
texts arranged for use at sacrifices, the necessity for 
which arose after the complicated sacrificial system 
had been elaborated. 

The Sama-veda again is merely a reproduction of 
parts of the Rig-veda, transposed and arranged for 
the Soma ceremonies performed by priests called 
Udgatris, as the Yajur-veda was for the sacrifices 
performed by Adhvaryu priests. ^ The greatest num- 
ber of its verses are taken from the ninth Mandala 
of the Rig-veda, which is in praise of the Soma plant. 



' Manu, iv. 123, says : "The Rig-veda has the gods for its 
deities ; the Yajur-veda has men for its objects ; the Sama-veda 
has the Pitris or spirits of departed ancestors, therefore its sound 
is impure." This semblance of impurity is said to be the result 
of its association with deceased persons, and its repetition at a 
time of mourning. 



HINDUISM. 21 

To what deities, then, did the Vedic poets address 
their prayers and hymns ? 

This is an interesting inquiry, for these were pro- 
bably the very deities worshipped under similar 
names by our Aryan progenitors in their primeval 
home somewhere on the table-land of Central Asia. 
The answer is, they worshipped those physical forces 
before which all nations, if guided solely by the light 
of nature, have in the early period of their life in- 
stinctively bowed down, and before which even the 
more civilized and enlightened have always been 
compelled to bend in awe and reverence, if not in 
adoration. Their religion was what may be called in 
one word physiolatry. 

To our Aryan forefathers in their Asiatic home 
God's power was exhibited in the forces of nature 
even more strikingly than to ourselves. Lands, houses, 
flocks, herds, men, and animals were more frequently 
than in Western climates at the mercy of winds, fire, 
and water, and the sun's rays possessed a potency 
quite beyond the experience of any European 
country. We cannot be surprised, then, that these 
forces were regarded as actual manifestations either 
of one deity in different moods or of separate rival 
deities contending for supremacy. Nor is it won- 
derful that these mighty agencies should have been 
at first poetically personified, and afterwards, when 
invested with forms, attributes, and individuality, 
worshipped as distinct gods. It was only natural, 
too, that a varying supremacy and varying honours 
should have been accorded to each deified force — to 
the air, the rain, the storm, the sun, or fire — accord- 



2 2 HINDUISM. 

ing to the special atmospheric influences to which 
particular localities were exposed, or according to the 
seasons of the year when the dominance of each was 
to be prayed for or deprecated. 

This was the religion represented in the Vedas, and 
was probably the primitive creed of the Indo- Aryans 
about twelve or thirteen centuries before Christ. The 
first forces deified seem to have been those mani- 
fested in the sky and air. These were at first gene- 
ralized under one simple but rather vague personifica- 
tion, as was natural in the earliest attempts at giving 
shape to religious ideas. Jn the Veda this unity 
soon diverged into various ramifications. Only a few 
of the hymns appear to contain the simple conception 
of one divine self-existent Being, and even in these 
the idea of one God present in all nature is somewhat 
nebulous and undefined. Perhaps the most ancient 
and beautiful deification was that of Dyaus, * the 
sky,' as Dyaush-pitar, ' Heavenly Father ' (the Zeus 
or Ju-piter of the Greeks and Romans). Then, closely 
connected with Dyaus, was a goddess Aditi, ' the 
Infinite Expanse,' conceived of subsequently as the 
mother of all the gods. Next came a development 
of the same conception called Varuna, ' the Investing 
Sky,' said to answer to xAhura Mazda, the Ormazd of 
the ancient Persian (Zand) mythology, and to the 
Greek Ovpayoc, but a more spiritual conception, leading 
to a worship which rose to the nature of a belief in 
the great UaTi)p ^i^iibv b h- role ovpavolc. This Varuna, 
again, was soon thought of in connection with another 
vague personification called Mitra (= the Persian 
Mithj'o), ' god of day.' After a time these imper- 



HINDUISM. 23 

sonations of the celestial sjohere were felt to be too 
vague to suit the growth of religious ideas in ordi- 
nary minds. Soon, therefore, the great investing 
firmament was resolved into separate cosmical enti- 
ties with separate powers and attributes. First, the 
watery atmosphere, personified under the name of 
Indra, ever seeking to dispense his dewy treasures, 
though ever restrained by an opposing force or spirit 
of evil called Vritra ; and, secondly, the wind, thought 
of either as a single personality named Vayu, or as a 
whole assemblage of moving powers coming from 
every quarter of the compass, and impersonated as 
Maruts, or ' Storm-gods.' At the same time the 
once purely celestial Varuna became relegated to a 
position among seven secondary deities of the heavenly 
sphere called Adityas (afterwards increased to twelve, 
and regarded as diversified forms of the sun in the 
several months of the year), and subsequently to a 
dominion over the waters when they had left the air 
and rested on the earth. 

Of these separately deified physical forces by far 
the most favourite object of adoration was the deity 
supposed to yield the dew and rain. Indra is the 
Jupiter Pluvius of early Indian mytholo,gy, and he 
is the principal divinity of Vedic worshippers, if, at 
least, the mere number of prayers and hymns ad- 
dressed to him is to be taken as an indication of his 
superiority. 

What, however, could rain effect without the aid of 
heat ? — a force the intensity of which must have im- 
pressed an Indian mind with awe. Hence, the second 
great god of Vedic worshippers and the most important 



24 HINDUISM. 

in connection with sacrificial rites, is Agni (Latin, 
Ignis), ' the god of fire.' Even Surya, ' the sun ' (Greek, 
i)\ioc), who is generally the first and most important 
god in all Pagan systems as the supposed source of 
heat, generation, and growth, was sometimes regarded 
by the Hindus as another form of fire, a manifestation 
of the same divine energy in the heavens. 

These three, Indra, Agni, and Surya constitute the 
Vedic chief triad of gods. 

Another deity, Ushas, 'goddess of the dawn,' the 
iiijQ of the Greeks, was naturally connected with the 
sun, and regarded as daughter of the sky. Two 
other deities, the Asvins, were fabled as twin sons of 
the Sun (by his wife Asvini), ever young and hand- 
some, travelling in a golden car, and precursors of 
Ushas the dawn. They are sometimes called Dasras, 
as divine physicians, ' destroyers of diseases ' ; some- 
times Nasatyas, as ' never untrue.' They appear to 
have been personifications of two luminous points ox 
rays, imagined to precede the break of day. 

And here, it should be stated, that the earth, under 
the name of Prithivi, ' the broad one,' receives a 
certain share of honour as one of the primitive god- 
desses of the Veda, beint, thought of as the mother 
of all beings. Moreover, vario us deities were regarded 
as the progeny resulting from the fancied union of 
earth with Dyaus, ' heaven,' just as much of the 
later mythology may be explained by a supposed 
blending of the male and female principles in nature. 
But it is remarkable that as religious worship became 
of a more selfish character, the earth, being more 
evidently under man's control, and not seeming to 



HINDUISM. 25 

need propitiation so urgently as the more uncertain 
air, fire, and water, lost importance, and was rarely 
adored in prayer or hymn. 

If to the foregoing enumeration of the gods of the 
Veda be added the name of Yama, the god of de- 
parted spirits, and afterwards the appointed judge 
of the dead, the principal deities to whom the 
Mantras of the Vedic hymns were addressed, will 
then have been stated. 

It should be observed that the native commenta- 
ries on the Veda often allude to thirty-three gods, 
which number is also mentioned in the Rig-veda 
^{I. 34, 11; I. 45, 2). This is a multiple of three, 
which is a sacred number constantly -appearing in the 
Hindu religious system.^ It is probable, indeed, 
that although the Tri-murti is not named in the Vedic 
hymns, yet the Veda is the real source of this Triad 
of personifications, afterwards so conspicuous in 
Hindu mythology. This much, at least, is clear, 
that the Vedic poets exhibited a tendency to group 
all the forces and energies of nature under three 
heads, and the assertion that the number of the gods 
was thirty-three, amounted to saying that each of the 
three leading personifications was capable of eleven 
modifications. There can be no doubt that a change 
of name in Hindu mythology does not necessarily 
imply the creation of a new deity. Indra, Vayu, 
the Maruts and Rudras, appear to have been all forms 



' For example, there are three Veda5, three Margas or ways 
of salvation, three Gunas or fetters of the soul, three principal 
castes, three eyes in Siva's forehead, three objects of human 
pursuit, three worlds, Sec. 



26 HINDUISM. 

and modifications of each other, and these with dif- 
ferent names in the later mythology were gathered 
into the one personification Siva. Similarly, Surya, 
the sun, had various forms, such as Adityas ; and 
one of these, named Vishnu, in the Rig-veda, led 
to the second member of the Tri-murti, while Agni, 
fire or heat, the great generator of life, who \ is 
called in the Rig-veda ' father of the sacrifice,' and 
is himself said to have a triple essence, and was appa- 
rently often identified by his worshippers with the 
Supreme Being, easily passed into the first member 
of the Tri-murti, Brahma, or when the worship of 
Brahma seemed to give place to that of Siva, inta 
one aspect of this latter deity. 

The following are free translations (from my 
' Indian Wisdom') of portions of the most remarkable 
hymns in the Rig-veda. The first (Mandala, x. 129) 
attempts to describe the mystery of creation thus : — 

In the beginning there was neither nought nor auglit ; 

Then there was neither sky nor atmosphere above. 

What then enshrouded all this teeming universe ? 

In the receptacle of what was it contained ? 

Was it enveloped in the gulf profound of water ? 

Then was there neither death nor immortality ; 

Then there was neither day, nor night, nor light, nor darkness. 

Only the Existent One breathed calmly, self-contained. 

Nought else but he there was — nought else above, beyond. 

Then first came darkness hid in darkness, gloom in gloom ; 

Next all was water, all a chaos indiscrete, 

In which the One lay void, shrouded in nothingness. 

Then turning inwards, he by self-developed force 

Of inner fervour and intense abstraction, grew. 

First in his mind was formed Desire, the primal germ 

Productive, which the Wise, profoundly searching, say 

Is the first subtle bond, connecting Entity 

With Nullity. 



HINDUISM. 27 

In this h3'mn we perceive the first dim outHne of 
the remarkable idea that the Creator willed to pro- 
duce the universe through the agency and co-opera- 
tion of a female principle — an idea which aftenvards 
acquired more definite shape in the supposed mar- 
riage of heaven and earth before alluded to. The 
same idea assumed a character of its own in the 
Sankhya philosophy (as we shall see hereafter), and 
gathered such strength subsequently that every prin- 
cipal deity in the later mythology has his feminine 
counterpart, who shares the worship paid to the male 
god, and who sometimes receives the greater homage 
of the two. That this idea is not fully developed in 
the Rig-veda is proved by the fact that with the 
exception of Aditi, Ushas, and Prithivi, most of the 
goddesses are insignificant. The wives of the chief' 
gods, such as Indrani, Agnayi, Asvini, Varunani, 
&c., are not associated with their husbands as objects 
of worship, and even Lakshmi and SarasvatI, though 
named, are not adored. ^ 

The next specimen is from the 121st hymn of the 
icth Mandala, Like the preceding, it furnishes a good 
argument for those who maintain that the original 
faith of the Hindus was monotheistic : — 

\\Tiat god shall we adore with sacrifice ? 
Him let us praise, the golden child that rose 
In the beginning, who was born the lord — 



In the Satapatha-brahmana, xiv. 4. 2. I. and Brihad-aranyaka 
Upanishad, iii. I. the idea is more fully expressed : ' He felt not 
delight, being alone. He wished another. He caused his own 
self to fall in twain, and thus became husband and wife. He 
approached her and thus were human beings produced.' 
D 



28 HINDUISM. 

The one sole lord of all that is — who made 

The earth, and formed the sky, who giveth life, 

Who giveth strength, whose bidding gods revere, 

Whose hiding-place is immortality. 

Whose shadow, death ; who by his might is king 

Of all the breathing, sleeping, waking world. 

Where'er let loose in space, the mighty waters 

Have gone, depositing a fruitful seed. 

And generating fire, there he arose 

Who is the breath and life of all the gods. 

Whose mighty glance looks round the vast expanse 

Of watery vapour — source of energy. 

Cause of the sacrifice — the only God 

Above the gods. 

Here follow portions of other hymns to Varuna, 
imd to the Vedic triad, Indra, Agni, and Surya : — 

The mighty Varuna, who rules above, looks down 

Upon these worlds, his kingdom, as if close at hand. 

When men imagine they do ought by stealth, he knows it. 

No one can stand, or walk, or softly glide along. 

Or hide in dark recess, or lurk in secret cell. 

But Varuna detects him, and his movements spies. 

Two persons may devise some plot, together sitting. 

And think themselves alone ; but he, the king is there — 

A third — and sees it all. His messengers descend 

Countless from his abode, for ever traversing 

This world, and scanning with a thousand eyes its inmates. 

WTiate'er exists within this earth, and all within the sky. 

Yea, all that is beyond, king Varuna perceives. 

The winkings of men's eyes are numbered all by him : 

He wields the universe as gamesters handle dice. 

Indra, twin-brother of the god of fire, 
When thoN wast born, thy mother Aditi, 
Gave thee, her lusty child, the thrilling draught 
Of mountain-gjowing Soma — source of life 
And never-dying vigour to thy frame. 



HINDUISM. 

Thou art our guardian, advocate, and friend, 
A brother, father, mother — all combined. 
Most fatherly of fathers, we are thine, 
And thou art ours. Oh ! let thy pitying soul 
Turn to us in compassion when we praise thee, 
And slay us not for one sin or for many. 
Deliver us to-day, to-morrow, eveiy day. 
Vainly the demon ' dares thy might ; in vain 
Strives to deprive us of thy watery treasures. 
Earth quakes beneath the crashing of thy bolts. 
Pierced, shattered lies the foe — his cities crushed, 
His armies overthrown, his fortresses 
Shivered to fragments ; then the pent-up watcra, 
Released from long imprisonment, descend 
In torrents to the earth, and swollen rivers, 
Foaming and rolling to their ocean-home, 
Proclaim the triumph of the Thunderer. 

Agni, thou art a sage, a priest, a king. 

Protector, father of the sacrifice. 

Commissioned by us men, thou dost ascend 

A messenger, conveying to the sky 

Our hymns and offerings. Though thy origin 

Be threefold, now from air, and now from water, 

Now from the mystic double Arani, 

Thou art thyself a mighty god, a lord. 

Giver of life and immortality, 

One in thy essence, but to mortals three ; 

Displaying thine eternal triple form, 

As fire on earth, as lightning in the air. 

As sun in heaven. Thou art the cherished guesl 

Tn every household — father, brother, son. 

Friend, benefactor, guardian, all in one. 

Deliver, mighty lord, thy worshippers. 

Purge us from taint of sin, and when we die, 

Deal mercifully with us on the pyre. 



' The demon Vritra. See p. 23. 
D 2 



30 HINDUISM. 

Burning our bodies with their load of guilt, 
But bearing our eternal part on high 
To luminous abodes and realms of bliss, 
For ever there to dwell with righteous men. 

Behold the rays of Dawn, like heralds, lead on high 

The Sun, that men may see the great all-knowing god. 

The stars slink off like thieves, in company with Night, 

Before the all-seeing eye, whose beams reveal his presence, 

Gleaming like brilliant flames, to nation after nation. 

Surya, with flaming locks, clear-sighted god of day, 

Thy seven ruddy mares bear on thy rushing car. 

With these thy self-yoked steeds, seven daughters of thy chariot, 

Onward thou dost advance. To thy refulgent orb, 

Beyond this lower gloom, and upward to the light 

Would we ascend, O Sun, thou god among the gods. 

We may add a few verses from the celebrated 
Purusha-sukta, one of the most recent hymns of 
the Rig-veda (Mandala, x. 90). It will serve to 
illustrate the gradual sliding of Hindu monotheism 
into pantheism, and the first foreshadowing of the 
idea of sacrifice, as well as the institution of caste,' 
which for so many centuries has held India in bond- 
age :— 

The embodied spirit has a thousand heads, 

A thousand eyes, a thousand feet, around 

On every side enveloping the earth. 

Yet filling space no larger than a span. 

He is himself this very universe ; 

He is whatever is, has been, and shall be ; 

He is the lord of immortality. 

All creatures are one-fourth of him, three-fourths 



' This hymn (generally admitted to be a comparatively modem 
production) is the only hymn in the Rig-veda which alludes to 
the distinctions of caste. 



HINDUISM. 31 

Are that which is immortal in the sky. 

From him, called Purusha, was born Viraj, 

And from Viraj was Purusha produced, 

Whom gods and holy men made their oblation. 

With Purusha as victim, they performed 

A sacrifice. When they divided him. 

How did they cut him up ? What was his mouth ? 

What were his arms ? and what his thighs and feet ? 

The Brahman was his mouth, the kingly soldier 

Was made his arms, the husbandman his thighs. 

The servile Sudra issued from his feet. 

Be it observed, in conclusion, that the above ex- 
amples would, if taken alone, encourage a very false 
estimate of the merits of the Vedic Mantras. Although 
the majority of the Hindus believe that the several 
Samhitas of the Veda, and especially that of the Rig- 
veda, contain all that is good, great, and divine, yet 
these collections of hymns will be found, when taken 
as a whole, to abound more in puerile ideas than 
in striking thoughts and lofty conceptions. Nor will 
they be found to support any of those objectionable 
practices, superstitions, and opinions of the present 
day for which they were once, through ignorance of 
their contents, supposed to be an authority. The 
Vedic hymns contain no allusion to the doctrine of 
transmigration of souls, which is a conspicuous cha- 
racteristic of the Hindu creed in the later system. 
Nor do they afford any sanction to the prohibition 
of widow -marriages, the encouragement of child- 
marriages, the iron rules of caste, and the interdiction 
of foreign travel. Nor is there in them any evidence 
that the personifications of the forces of nature were 
represented by images or symbols carv^ed out of wood 



32 HINDUISM. 

or stone. On the contrary, it may be taken as almost 
certain that there were no idols and no temples to 
hold images in Vedic times. 

That the social condition of the people was by no 
means low, and that they had attained to some 
degree of civilization, may be inferred from various 
allusions in the hymns. It is evident that the chief 
riches of the newly-arrived Indo-Aryans consisted in 
fiocks and herds ; that they understood the principles 
of agriculture ; that they were able to build towns 
and fortified places ; that they had some knowledge 
of various arts and sciences and of working in metals ; 
that they engaged in philosophical speculations ; that 
they had rulers ; that they were separated into classes, 
though they were not yet divided off by hard lines of 
caste ; that polygamy existed, though monogamy was 
the rule ; that they killed animals for sacrifices ; that 
they were in the habit of eating animal food, and did 
not even object to the flesh of cows ; that they were 
fond of gambling, and indulged in intoxicating 
beverages. 

We may also gather that just as the children of 
Israel found the land of Canaan pre-occupied by 
Hittites, Perizzites, and Philistines, so the immi- 
grating Aryans, when they advanced into India, found 
the soil held by Scythian and aboriginal races, vari- 
ously called Das)ns, Anaryas, Nishadas, and Dravidas, 
who, from long exposure to the Indian sun, and per- 
haps from intermarriage with even more primitive and 
(as some believe) Negrito aboriginal tribes, had become 
almost as dark-complexioned as Africans. 



HINDUISM. 33 



CHAPTER III. 

THE BRAHMANAS AND THE SACRIFICIAL SYSTEM. 

Having thus endeavoured to explain the nature of 
the Vedic hymns, we now turn to the second division 
of the Veda called Brahmana, which, in relation to 
the rise of Brahmanical authority, the elaboration 
of the idea of sacrifice, and the development of the 
ritual, is more important than the Mantra portion. 

What, then, are the Brahmanas ? 

They are intended, as their name implies, for the 
Brahmans, and especially for their use in conducting 
the complicated sacrificial ceremonies. Just as the 
Mantras are the representatives of the nature-worship 
of the Rishis which was developed in the Panjab, so 
the Brahmanas are the exponents of the ritualism of 
the Brahmans, developed when they had settled in 
North-western Hindustan. 

Their chief aim is to serv^e as guides or directories 
for the employment of the Mantras at sacrifices. But 
they do more than this. They speculate as to the 
meaning and effect of using particular verses and 
metres, and give explanations of the origin, import, 
and conduct of the sacrifices, frequently intermixing 
illustrations in the shape of legends and old stories. 
The rambling discursiveness of these compositions 
(the oldest of which may have been written in the 



34 HINDUISM. 

seventh century B.C.) made them practically useless 
as directories to the ritual until they themselves were 
furnished with guides in the form of Sutras or apho- 
ristic rules. ^ 

Each of the Samhitas, or collections of Mantras, 
has its own Brahmanas. Thus the Rig-veda has the 
Aitareya-brahmana (perhaps the oldest) and the Kau- 
shitaki (or Sankhyayana)-brahm.ana. The two collec- 
tions of the Yajur-veda have the Taittiriya-brahmana 
and the Satapatha-brahmana, which last, belonging 
to the Vajasaneyi-sarnhita, is perhaps one of the most 
complete of these productions. The Sama-veda has 
eight Brahmanas, of which the two best known are 
the Praudha (= Panca-vinsa, Tandya) and the Shad- 
vinsa. The Atharva-veda has the Gopatha-brahmana. 

Though much of the matter of these treatises is 
little better than the silliest sacerdotalism, yet they 
furnish valuable materials to any one interested in 
tracing the rise and progress of Brahmanism, and the 
development of its sacrificial system. 

We may observe that the division of the people 
into the four great classes of Brahmanas, priests ; 



' These were called Kalpa or Srauta-sutras. Others, which 
were guides to domestic ceremonies, were called Smarta or 
Grihya-siitras (see p. 15). The word Sutra is derived from 
the root siv, ' to sew,' and means * a string of rules.' A Sutra 
should properly be expressed with the utmost possible brevity. 
It is frequently nothing but a few suggestive memorial words 
used like algebraic signs, and unintelligible without a key. In 
later times, Siitra works are merely collections of formulated 
precepts, adapted to serve as manuals to particular systems of 
teaching, whether in ritual, philosophy, law, or grammar. 



HINDUISM. 35 

Kshafrtyas, soldiers ; Vaisyas, agriculturists ; and 
Sudras, servants, — as foreshadowed in the Purusha- 
sukta of the Rig-veda (see p. 30), — was at this period 
more thoroughly established, though the rules of 
caste as laid down in the laws of Manu (see p. 57) 
were not yet generally in force. It may be noted, 
too, that the Brahmanas express belief in a future 
state more positively than the Mantras. They assert 
that a recompense awaits all beings in the next world 
according to their conduct in this. But the doctrine 
of transmigration, which became afterwards an essen- 
tial element of Hinduism, is not yet fully deve- 
loped, though hinted at in the ^atapatha-brahmana 
(xi. 6. I. i).i 

One of the most remarkable ideas to be found in the 
Brahmanas is that the gods were merely mortals till 
they extorted immortality from the Supreme Being by 
sacrifices and austerities. This is expressed in the 
following free translation of a passage of the Sata- 
patha-brahmana : — 

The gods lived constantly in dread of Death — 
The mighty Ender — so with toilsome rites 
They worshipped and repeated sacrifices 
Till they became immortal. Then the Ender 
Said to the gods, * As ye have made yourselves 
Imperishable ; so will men endeavour 
To free themselves from me ; what portion then 
Shall I possess in man ? ' The gods replied, 
* Henceforth no being shall become immortal 
In his own body ; this his mortal frame 



' Animals and plants are described as revenging, in a future 
state of existence, injuries inflicted on them by men in this life. 



36 HINDUISM. 

Shalt thou still seize ; this shall remain thy own. 
He who through knowledge or religious acts 
Henceforth attains to immortality 
Shall first present his body, Death, to thee.' 

And again in the Taittiriya-brahmana, — ' By means 
of the sacrifice the gods obtained heaven.' 

But a still more remarkable conception is that first 
found in the Purusha-sukta of the Rig-veda, already 
quoted, which represents the gods as sacrificing 
Piiriisha, the primeval Male, supposed to be coeval 
with the Creator. 

This idea is even more remarkably developed in 
the Tandya-brahmanas thus : — 

' The lord of creatures {prajd-pati) offered himself 
a sacrifice for the gods.' 

And again, in the Satapatha-brahmana, ' He who, 
knowing this, sacrifices with the Piirusha-iiiedha, or 
sacrifice of the primeval male, becomes everything.' 

Surely, in these mystical allusions to the sacrifice of 
a representative man, we may perceive traces of the 
original institution of sacrifice as a divinely-appointed 
ordinance typical of the one great voluntary sacrifice 
of the Son of God for the sins of the world.^ 

Whether they point to the actual sacrifice of human 
beings as part of the early Indo-Aryan system, admits 
of question. Doubtless the practice of human sacri- 
fice was eventually introduced ; and both children 



* Professor Banerjea (p. 204 of his ' Arian Witness ') thinks 
that it would not be easy to account for the genesis of such an 
idea, except on the assumption of some primitive tradition of 
the * Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.' 



HINDUISM. 37 

and adults were immolated as victims at the altars of 
the bloody goddess Kali in her numerous local forms. 
Such sacrifices were once regarded as the only means 
of propitiating her on occasions of great public cala- 
mities, when she was supposed to send blight, disease, 
and pestilence ; and for a long period they continued 
to be secretly, if not openly, perpetrated in certain 
districts of India. They were, at any rate, extensively 
prevalent among the wild and uncultivated Dravi- 
dian and aboriginal tribes ; many of whose practices 
were adopted by the Hindus, and contributed largely 
to mould the Vedic religion into its subsequent 
form. 

That human sacrifice was not at least unknown 
at the time the Aitareya-brahmana was composed is 
indicated by the story of Sunahsepha, of which the 
following is the briefest possible epitome : — 

King Hariscandra had no son ; he then prayed to Varuna, 
promising, that if a son were born to him, he would sacrifice 
the child to the god. Then a son was born to him called 
Rohita. When Rohita was grown up, his father one day told 
him of the vow he had made to Varuna and bade him prepare 
to be sacrificed. The son objected to be killed, and ran away 
from his father's house. For six years he wandered in the 
forest and at last met a starving Brahman. Him he persuaded 
to sell one of his sons named Sunahsepha, for a hundred cows. 
This boy was bought by Rohita and taken to Hariscandra and 
about to be sacrificed to Varuna as a substitute for Rohita, 
when, on praying to the gods with verses from the Veda, he 
was released by them. 

Nevertheless, it is clear from the following passage 
in the same Brahmana that the sacrifice of human 
beings was really so repugnant to Aryan instincts 



38 HINDUISM. 

that it did not long retain the direct sanction of the 
Brahmans : — 

The gods killed a man for their victim. But from him thus 
killed, the part which was fit for a sacrifice went out and entered 
a horse. Thence, the horse became an animal fit for being 
sacrificed. The gods then killed the horse, but the part of it 
for being sacrificed went out of it and entered an ox. The 
gods then killed the ox, but the part of it fit for being sacrificed 
went out of it and entered a sheep. Thence it entered a goat. 
The sacrificial part remained for the longest time in the goat ; 
thence, it became pre-eminently fit for being sacrificed ! 

This passage indicates that whatever the actual 
practice may have been — the desire of the Brahmans 
was to abolish human sacrifice, and substitute in its 
place the sacrifice of animals, four kinds of which are 
enumerated — horses, oxen, sheep, and goats, — in the 
regular order of their fitness for immolation — accord- 
ing to some inherent efficacy in each class.^ It is 
remarkable that in Vedic times, even a cow (called 
afuisfarani), was sometimes killed,- and goats, as is 
well known, are still sacrificed to the goddess Kali. 

In the Rig-veda, the Asva-medha or ' horse-sacri- 
fice,' is made an important ceremony, and hymns 162 
and 163 in Mandala I. were used at this rite, which 
was regarded as the chief of all animal sacrifices. 

Indeed, it is essential to a clear comprehension of 
Brahmanism and Hinduism, that the exact nature and 



' In the Vajasaneyi-Samhita of the White Yajur-veda two 
hundred and ten different kinds of victims for sacrifice are 
enumerated. In Manu, v. 42, it is stated that animals duly sacri- 
ficed are conveyed to heavenly mansions. 

"^ The killing of a cow and burning it with the body of a de- 
ceased person is described by Asvalayana. 



HINDUISM. 39 

meaning of sacrifice, as employed by the Hindus, 
should be impressed on the mind at the very outset. 
The idea of the need of sacrificial acts of some kind, is 
ingrained in their whole system. It is one of the earliest 
that appears in Indian religious works, and no literature 
— not even the Jemsh — contains so many words relating 
to sacrifice as Sanskrit. But the oldest form of Vedic 
sacrifice was not piacular. It consisted in the mere 
dedication of offerings of food to the gods. This was 
generally done by oblations of butter, &c., in fire, or 
by pouring out libations of the juice of the Soma plant, 
which were supposed to nourish and exhilarate the 
deities, especially Indra.^ In fact, one object of a 
Hindu's sacrifices and oblations, whether in Vedic or 
post-Vedic times, has always been, and still continues 
to be, the supposed actual nourishment of the gods, 
by the aroma or essence of the substances offered ; ^ 
food being regarded as a necessity of their being.^ 
Thus, in the Vishnu-purana we read, ' By sacrifices 
the gods are nourished.' 



' There are two Sanskrit roots for ' to sacrifice ' : hu ( = an 
older dhu~Ov) and yaj. The first is restricted to oblations of 
clarified butter in fire ; the latter, which means ' to worship,' is 
applied to sacrificing generally. Besides these two roots, the 
root su is used for offering libations with the juice of the Soma. 

^ The spirits of departed ancestors are also supposed to be 
refreshed and nourished by libations of water, and offerings of 
food (Manu, iii. 237). 

^ Sleep seems also necessary to them. From a particular 
day in the month Ashadha to a particular day in Karttika the 
gods are supposed to sleep. Vishnu wakes up on the eleventh 
day of the light half of Karttika. Indra is said to rise on the 
new moon of Asvina, celebrated as Sakrotthdna ; and before 
Durga is worshipped at the autumnal Durga-piija she must be 



40 HINDUISM. 

But the idea of expiation was gradually introduced 
even in Vedic times. The sacrificer was mystically 
identified with the victim, which was regarded as 
the ransom for sin, and the instrument of its annul-- 
ment. In the Tandya-brahmana, we read, — 

O thou limb of the victim now consigned to the fire, thou art 
the expiation for sins committed by the gods, by the fathers 
(our deceased ancestors), by men, by ourselves. Whatever sin 
we have committed, sleeping or waking, knowing or unknowing, 
thou art the expiation for that. 

And here we have to note a third object of sacrifice. 
Besides the wish to nourish the gods with the savour 
of the material substances offered, and besides the 
desire for expiation, resulting from substituted suffer- 
ing, the sacrificer might have a third aim. It was 
believed possible by sacrifice to acquire super-human 
power, and to wrest from the gods any desired boon, 
or object of ambition, however difficult of attainment. 
This could also be effected through the practice of 
austerities, but wealthy individuals who had large re- 
sources in money and priests at command, relied more 
on the efficacy of particular sacrifices (such as the 
Jyotishtoma, Agnishtoma, Vajapeya, &c.), elaborately 
conducted by Brahmans with the punctilious obser- 
vance of a complicated ritual, and the distribution of 
largesses to the officiating priests. According to the 
popular creed, a hundred horse-sacrifices so conducted, 
exalted the sacrificer to the rank of a powerful deity, 
and even entitled him to displace Indra himself from 



awaked, and a ceremony called Bodhana, 'arousing of the 
goddess,' takes place. On the other hand, one of the charac- 
teristics of the gods is said to be that they never wink. 



HINDUISM. 41 

the dominion of heaven. Hence, the very gods for 
whose nourishment and propitiation sacrifices were 
intended, were thought to be jealous of over-zeal dis- 
played by pious individuals in multiplying sacrificial 
rites, and were even said to put impediments in their 
way. Nevertheless, in spite of such supposed oppo- 
sition to excessive piety, the number of sacrificers and 
sacrifices of all kinds, increased in India. 

Tn fact, for the whole Brahmana period of Hinduism 
(probably from 800 to 500 B.C.), the need of pro- 
pitiatory offerings through the oblation of food in 
(ire and immolation of animals remained a central 
doctrine of Brahmanism. Thousands of animals were 
killed every day. The land was saturated with blood 
The greater the number of the sacrifices and the more 
elaborate the ritual, the greater the need for a more 
complete organization of priests. In this manner the 
whole Brahmanical sacrificial system, of which the 
Brahmana portion of the Veda is the expression and 
ex-ponent, was overdone. People became wearied and 
disgusted ^\•ith sacrifices, sacrificers, and sacrificing 
priests. 

Then, about five centuries before our era, the 
reformer Buddha appeared, and about contempor- 
aneously with him various Brahman sages, stimulated 
by his example and perhaps by that of others who 
preceded him,i thought out what are called the or- 
thodox systems of Hindu philosophy. The bolder 
reformers found ready listeners when they began to 



' There is no reason for supposing that the Buddha was the 
first freethinker and philosopher that India produced. He him- 
self taught that other Buddhas had preceded him. 



42 HINDUISM. 

preach the impossibility of vicarious suffering; the 
transmigration of souls ; the necessity that every man 
should suffer himself, and in his own person, for his 
own sins, either in this or future lives ; the unity of 
all being ; the identity of the human soul with the 
Divine, and the consequent absurdity of caste-distinc- 
tions. All idea of the need of propitiatory sacrifice 
was by them rejected; for when every man was 
believed to be a part of God, what necessity was there 
that God should propitiate Himself? If a portion of 
the One Universal Soul chose for a time to ignore 
itself, to enclose itself in a body, to fetter itself with 
actions and their inevitable results, the consequent 
suffering could only be borne by itself in its passage 
through numerous existences, and there could be no 
release — no final emancipation — till action ceased,and 
the consciousness of identity with the one universal soul 
returned. Hence the gradual diminution of animal 
sacrifices throughout India, except at the altars of 
the fierce goddess Kali or Durga, who is supposed 
to delight in blood, and, if satiated by the immolation 
of goats and buffaloes, to abstain from causing further 
destruction. But at no other temples are victims now 
killed, and even such propitiatory slaughtering of 
animals is utterly repugnant to the present feelings 
and opinions of the educated Hindus. Such was 
the great revolution effected by Buddha and the 
Brahman philosophers together. 

, It will be necessary to give fuller consideration to 
the new ideas thus introduced into Brahmanism. But 
before describing them more in detail, we must first 
glance at the third or Upanishad portion of the Veda, 
which was really the source whence they sprang. 



HINDUISM. 43 

CHAPTER IV. 

THE UPANISHADS AND ERAHMANICAL PHILOSOPHY. 

The third division of the Veda is called Upattishad, 
which implies something that underlies the surface. 
The doctrine contained in these treatises does in fact 
lie under the whole Hindu system. Not only are the 
Upanishads as much Srufi, or 'revelation' as the 
Mantra and Brahmana portion of the Veda, but they 
are practically the only part of the Veda much studied 
and appealed to by educated Hindus in the present 
day. 

To understand this, we must bear in mind that 
Indian authorities separate the Veda into two divisions. 
The first is called Karma-kdnda, ' the department of 
works.' This embraces both Mantra and Brahmana, 
and is for that vast majority of persons who are unable 
to conceive of religion, except as a process of laying 
up merit by prayers, sacrifices, rites, and austerities. 
For these the one God assumes various forms, to any 
of which worship may be addressed and honour paid. 

The second is called Jnd7ia-kdj,ida — 'the depart- 
ment of knowledge.' This is taught in the Upanishads, 
and is for that select few who are capable of under- 
standing the true doctrine. 

We have already seen (p. 1 1 ) that the creed of the 
man who is said to possess the true knowledge is 
singularly simple. He believes that there is but one 

E 



^j) HiNDUISiM. 

real Being in the universe, which Being also consti- 
tutes the universe. 

This pantheistic doctrine is everywhere traceable 
in some of the more ancient Upanishads, though often 
wrapped up in mysticism and allegory. A list of 
about 150 of these treatises is given, most of which 
are written in prose with occasional variations in verse. 
The absence of historical records in India makes it 
impossible to fix the date of any of them with more 
certainty than that of the Mantras. Their style is, 
however, less archaic, and not very different from that 
of classical Sanskrit. Some of the more ancient are 
probably as old as the sixth century B.C. These 
are appended to the Aranyakas — certain chapters of 
the Brahmanas, so awe-inspiring and profound, that 
they were required to be read in the solitude of forests. 
Properly each Brahmana had its Aranyakas ; but the 
philosophical ideas they contained were so mixed up 
with extraneous subjects, that the chapters called 
Upanishads were added with the object of investi- 
gating more definitely such abstruse problems as the 
origin of the universe, the nature of the deity, the 
nature of the human soul, and the reciprocal con- 
nexion of spirit and matter. 

The names of the ten most important Upanishads 
are the Isa (actually attached to the 40th chapter of 
the Vajasaneyi-sarnhita^), Keiia^ and C'hdndogya (of 
the Sama-veda), and Kalha, Prama^ Mu^daka, Mdn- 
dukya (of the Atharva-veda), Brihad-dranyaka (at- 



' I was told by a great Pandit that this was the only Upan- 
ishad entitled to be called apaitriisheya^ i. e. not written by 



uINDUISM. 45 

tached to the ^atapatha-brahmana), Aitareya (belong- 
ing to the Rig-veda), Taittiriya (belonging to the black 
Yajur-veda). 

It is interesting to trace the rudiments of the later 
philosophy amid the labyrinth of mystical ideas and 
puerile conceits which bewilder the reader of the 
Upanishads. They are the link connecting the 
Brahmanas with the Darsanas or regular philosophical 
systems, their connexion with the former being shown 
by the frequent allusions to sacrificial rites. But they 
rise to a far higher level than the Brahmanas ; and 
in some of them striking thoughts, original ideas, and 
lofty language redeem the absurdities of the mysticisno. 

The following literal translation of part of the Isa 
Upanishad (regarded as one of the most important) 
will afford a good example of the pantheistic doctrines 
of Brahmanism, as they first emerge in this portion of 
Indian sacred literature : — 

Whate'er exists within this universe 
Is all to be regarded as enveloped 
By the great Lord, as if wrapped in a vesture. 
There is one only Being who exists 
Unmoved, yet moving swifter than the mind ; 
Who far outstrips the senses, though as gods 
They strive to reach him ; who himself at rest 
Transcends the fleetest flight of other beings ; 
Who, like the air, supports all vital action. 
He moves, yet moves not ; he is far, yet near ; 
He is within this universe. AMioe'er beholds 
All living creatures as in him and him — 
The universal Spirit — as in all. 
Henceforth regards no creature with contempt. 

We now pass on to a brief notice of the actual 

E 2 



4^ HINDUISM. 

systems of philosophy. These are not regarded as 
part of ^ruti or Revelation. 

They are sometimes called the Shat Sastras or ' Six 
Instruments of True Teaching,' sometimes the Shad 
Darsanas, or ' Six Demonstrations of Truth. 'They had 
not shaped themselves into separate schools at the 
period when we may suppose the present version of 
Manu's law-book to have been drawn up in the fifth 
century B.C. As, however, the six Darsanas grew di- 
rectly out of the Upanishads, and as most of their 
doctrines preceded, or were contemporaneous with 
the compilation of Manu's laws, the names of the six 
schools may here be enumerated. 

They are, — i. The JVydya, founded by Gotama. 
.2. The Vaiseshika, by Kanada. 3. The Sdnkhya^ by 
Kapila. 4. The Yoga^ by Patanjali. 5. The Mim- 
iinsd, by Jaimini. 6. The Veddnta, by Badarayana 
or Vyasa. 

They were delivered in Sutras or aphorisms, which 
are held to be the basis of all subsequent teaching 
under each head (see note p. 34). 

The date of the composition of these aphorisms 
cannot be settled with certainty. Nor is it possible 
to decide when the six schools w^ere finally systema- 
tized, nor which of the six preceded the other. Some 
ot them are dualistic (affirming the co-existence of 
two eternal principles) ; some non-dualistic (insisting 
on the unity of all being). Their distinctive features 
are explained in the Appendix. Our present concern 
is with those lines of metaphysical speculation which 
preceded the formulation of distinct philosophical 
creeds. 



HINDUISM. 47 

It seems tolerably certain that about five or six cen- 
turies before the commencement of the Christian era, 
a mighty stir took place in thinking minds throughout 
the then civilized world. Thus, when Buddha arose 
in India, Greece had her thinkers in the followers of 
Pythagoras, Persia in those of Zoroaster, China in those 
of Confucius. Men began to ask themselves earnestly 
such questions as — What am I? Whence have I 
come ? Whither am I going? How can I explain my 
consciousness of personal existence? What is the 
relationship between my material and immaterial 
nature ? What is this world in which I find my- 
self? How can I explain the deepest mystery of 
nature — the history of creation ? Did a wise, good, 
and all-powerful Being create the world out of nothing? 
or did it evolve itself out of an eternal germ ? or did 
it come together by a fortuitous concurrence of eternal 
atoms ? If created by a Being of infinite wisdom, how 
can I account for the inequalities of condition in it — 
good and evil, happiness and misery? Has the creator 
form, or is he formless ? Has he any qualities or none ? 

Certainly in India no satisfactory solution of ques- 
tions such as these was to be found in the prayers and 
hymns of the ancient Indo- Aryan poets, which, though 
called Veda or ' knowledge ' by the Brahmans, did 
not even profess to furnish any real knowledge on 
these points, but merely gave expression to the first 
gropings of the human mind, searching for truth by 
the uncertain light of natural phenomena. 

Nor did the ritualistic Brahmanas contribute any- 
thing to the elucidation of such topics. They merely 
encouraged the growth of a superstitious belief in the 



48 HINDUISM. 

efficacy of sacrifices, and fostered the increasing 
dependence of the multitude on a mediatorial caste 
of priests, supposed to be the constituted medium of 
comm.unication between men and gods. Still these 
momentous questions pressed for solution, and the 
minds of men finding no rest in mere traditional 
revelation, and no satisfaction in mere external rites, 
turned inwards, each thinker endeavouring to think 
out for himself the great problems of life by the aid 
of his own reason. Hence were composed the mysti- 
cal Upanishads already described. Be it remembered 
that these treatises were not regarded as antagonistic 
to revelation, but rather as complementary of it. They 
were held to be an integral portion of the Veda, and 
even its loftiest utterance — the apex to which all 
previous revelation tended. Probably the simple fact 
was, that as it was found impossible to preclude the 
Kshatriyas and other inferior classes from rationalistic 
inquiry, the Brahmans, with their usual astuteness, 
determined on making it their own, and dignifying its 
first development in the Upanishads with the title of 
Veda. 

Brahmanism and rationalistic philosophy, therefore, 
advanced hand in hand. Any Brahman might become 
a philosopher, provided he gave a nominal assent to 
the Veda. But if a Kshatriya free-thinker, like Buddha, 
asserted that any one might be a-teacher of philosophy, 
or might gain emancipation for himself, irrespectively 
of the Veda or of the Brahmans, he was at once 
denounced as an infidel. 

Such unbelieving free-thinkers soon became numer- 
ous in India. For, in truth, a process of action and 



HINDUISM. 49 

reaction has marked the whole course of Hinduism. 
The heretical Buddhistic movement (more fully de- 
scribed in chapter vi.) was nothing but a natural 
reaction from the tyranny of Brahmanism and caste. 
It was like the return swing of a pendulum to which 
an impulse was given by one great and enlightened 
man. It was a rebound from excessive intolerance to 
the broadest tolerance. It was the name for unfettered 
religious thought asserting itself without fear of con- 
sequences. 

The orthodox schools of philosophy, on the other 
hand, were the homes of those rationalists who 
sacrificed honesty at the shrine of Brahmanical 
respectability. These schools went through the form 
of acknowledging the authority of the Veda. Yet 
two at least of the six, which taught the eternal 
distinctness of spirit and matter, viz. the Vaiseshika 
and Sdnkhya, proceeded almost to the same length 
with Buddhism, even to the practical ignoring of a 
supreme intelligent creator. 

Leaving these points to be explained more fully in 
the Appendix, let us briefly trace the common lines 
of philosophical thought growing directly out of the 
Upanishads. This common creed is clearly indicated 
in Manu's law-book, and even at the present day may be 
detected underlying the faith of most thinking Hindus, 
to whatever sect or system they may nominally belong. 

This common philosophical creed, then, asserts : — 

I. The eternity of the soul, both retrospectively 
and prospectively. 

Soul is regarded as of two kinds : a. the supreme universal 
soul (variously called Paravidtmauy Brahnian, Purusha^ er'f.) 



50 HINDUISM. 

I. the personal individual soul of living beings, called JJvatman. 
If any entity is eternal it can have had no beginning or it must 
have an end. Hence souls both universal and individual, whether 
they be regarded as different or identical, have always existed 
and must ever exist. 

2. The eternity of the matter or substance out of 
which the universe has been evolved. 

Note that this evolution may take place, according to some 
materialists, from gross particles of matter; or, as in the 
Vedanta system, from soul itself when overspread by illusion. 
This is a result of that fixed dogma of a Hindu philosopher's 
htXid—ndvastuno vastiisiddhih^ ex nihilo nihil fit, — nothing can 
be produced out of nothing. 

3. The soul, though itself abstract thought and 
knowledge, can only exercise thought, consciousness, 
sensation, and cognition, and indeed can only act and 
will when connected with external objects of sensation, 
invested with some bodily form, and joined to mind 
{manas). 

For observe that mind is an internal organ of sense, a sort of 
inlet of thought into the soul, belonging only to the body, 
and quite as distinct from the soul as any external organ of the 
body. 

4. The union of soul and body is productive of 
bondage, and, in the case of human souls, of misery. 

For note that the soul, so united, becomes conscious of personal 
existence and individuality, and is capable of receiving impres- 
sions pleasurable or painful. Then it commences acting ; but all 
action, good or bad, leads to bondage because it entails a con- 
sequence, according to the maxim Ava^yain ma bhoktavyam 
krilani karma htbhdhibhajn, * When an action, good or bad, has 
been committed, its fruit must of necessity be eaten.' Hence* 



HINDUISM. 



51 



if an act be good it must be rewarded, and if bad it must be 
punished. 

5. In order to accomplish the working out of the 
consequences, or ripenings of acts {karma-vipdkd)y 
the soul must be removed to a place of reward or 
punishment, which reward or punishment, however, is 
neither full and effectual nor final. 

For observe that the heavens of the Hindu system are only 
steps on the road to final beatitude, and the hells, though places 
of terrible torture,' are merely temporary purgatories. 

The soul must leave these and return to corporeal 
existence, migrating into higher, intermediate, and 
lower forms, according to its shades of merit or de- 
merit, and as it progresses towards emancipation from 
separate existence, passing through the four stages of 
bliss called sdlokya, living in the same heaven with 
God, sdmipya, nearness to God, sdrupya, assimilation 
to the likeness of God, till the great end of sdyujya^ 
or complete union with the Supreme, has been 
attained. 

6. The transmigration of the soul, through an 
innumerable succession of bodies,^ is the true ex- 
planation of the existence of evil in the world. 

For note that misery, disease, depravity, inequality of fortune, 
and diversity of character, good or bad, are simply the conse- 
quences of acts done by each soul of its own free will in former 



' Tweiity-one in number. See note 2 to p. d^ of ' Indian 
Wisdom.' (Allen & Co.) 

' The popular theory is that every being must pass through 
eighty-four lakhs of births, a lakh being one hundred thousand. 



52 HINDUISM. 

bodies, which acts exert on that soul an irresistible power, very 

significantly called Adrishta, because felt and ' not seen. ' Hence 
the soul has to bear the consequences of its own actions only, 
being tossed hither and thither by a force set in motion by itself, 
but which can never be guarded against, because its operation 
depends on deeds committed in former lives quite beyond 
control, and even unremembered. 

From a consideration of the above six essential 
elements of Brahmanical philosophy we find that its 
one great aim is to teach men to abstain from action of 
every kind, good or bad ; as much from liking as from 
disliking, as much from loving as from hating, and 
even from indifference. Actions are the fetters of the 
embodied soul, which when it has shaken off, it ^vill 
lose all sense of individual personality and return to 
the condition of simple soul. This constitutes Prama 
or true knowledge ; this is the siwwiuifi boftum of 
Brahmanism ; this is the only real bliss — the loss of 
repeated separate existences by complete absorption 
{sdyiijya) into the only really existing Being, who is 
wholly unfettered by action, and without qualities of 
any kind {^tirgiina), and called sa'c-tid-dnanda} be- 
cause he is pure life (with nothing, however, to live 
for), pure thought (with nothing to think about), pure 
joy (with nothing to rejoice about). 



This is the trinity of Brahmanical philosophy. 



HINDUISM. 53 



CHAPTER V. 

BRAHMANICAL LAW, DOMESTIC USAGES, AND CASTE. 

Having traced the first rise and development of 
Brahmanical philosophy, we shall be better prepared 
to enter on that phase of Brahmanism which resulted 
from the growth of scepticism, viz. the substitution 
of social and domestic usages, — varying according to 
caste and tribe, — in place of public ritual and sacrifices. 

Of this period, the Grihya-sutras, and the Dharma- 
^astras, or law-books of Manu and of Yajnavalkya, 
are the best exponents. 

The Grihya-sutras are collections of aphoristic rules, 
which are only distinguished from the Srauta-stitras of 
the Kalpa-Vedanga (see p. 15) because they do not 
relate to Srauta or Vedic sacrifices so much as to 
domestic rites. The law-book of Manu, which may 
be assigned in its present form to about the fifth 
century B.C., is a metrical version of the traditional 
observances of a tribe of Brahmans called Manavas, 
who probably belonged to a school of the black Yajur- 
veda and lived in the north-west of India, not far from 
Delhi, which observances were originally embodied 
in their Grihya-sutras. To these Sutras many precepts 
on religion, morality, and philosophy were added by 
an author or authors unknown, the whole being col- 
lected in more recent times by a Brahman or Brah- 



54 HINDUISM. 

mans, who, to give weight and dignity to the collection, 
assigned its authorship to the mythical sage Manu. 

Without attempting to determine the real authorship 
or to settle the exact date of the present compilation, 
we may safely affirm that the well-known collection 
of precepts commonly called ' the code of Manu ' is 
perhaps the oldest and most sacred Sanskrit work 
after the Veda and its Srauta-sutras. Although 
standing in a manner at the head of Smriti, or post- 
Vedic literature, it is connected with the Veda through 
these Sutras, as the philosophical Darsanas are through 
the Upanishads. Even if not the oldest of post-Vedic 
writings, it is certainly the most interesting, both as 
presenting a picture of the usages, manners, and in- 
tellectual condition of an important part of the Hindu 
race at a remote period, and as revealing the exagge- 
rated nature of the rules by which the Brahmans sought 
to perpetuate an organized caste-system in subordina- 
tion to themselves. At the same time, it is in other 
respects perhaps one of the most remarkable books 
that the literature of the whole world can offer, and 
some of its moral precepts are worthy of Christianity 
itself. 

The compilation as now presented to us is an irre- 
gular compendium of rules which were probably in 
force in a particular part of India for a long period 
of time, and were handed down orally. It is tolerably 
certain that the whole of India was never under one 
government. Some few powerful monarchs are known 
to have acquired sovereignty over very extensive terri- 
tories, and were then called C'akra-vartins ; but we 
must not suppose that the term ^ Code,' as applied to 



HINDUISM. 55 

Manu's law-book, is intended to denote a systematic 
arrangement of laws actually prevalent over the whole 
of such territories. In later times it became the basis 
of Hindu jurisprudence, but it was long before it 
worked its way to acceptance with the entire Hindu 
community ; and although this law- book has now 
secured for itself a degree of reverence throughout 
the whole of India, only second to that accorded to 
the Veda, it was, without doubt, originally a mere 
local collection. 

It will be found that, after eliminating the purely 
religious and philosophical precepts, the greater 
number of its rules fall under the following four 
heads : — 

1. Acara, 'immemorial practices,' which are described as 
Sad-acdra, ' approved practices,' sanctioned by the Veda and by 
Smriti, if they are those which prevailed between the two sacred 
rivers, Sarasvati and DrishadvatI, in the region called Brahma- 
varta. These, in fact, include all the observances of caste, re- 
garded as constituting the highest law and highest religion. 

2. Vyavahdra, 'practices of law and government,' embrac- 
ing the procedure of legal tribunals, rules of judicature and 
civil and criminal law. 

3. Prdyai-cittay ' penitential exercises,' comprehending rules 
of expiation. 

4. Karma-phala, ' consequences of acts,' especially as involv- 
ing repeated births through numberless existences, until the 
attainment of final beatitude. 

Since the precepts under these four heads were 
framed by men who were Brahmans of the Manava 
school, it is only natural that they should have especial 
reference to the life of Brahmans, the regulations for 
which engross six books, and are besides introduced 



56 HINDUISM. 

everywhere throughout the other six. But as the Brah- 
man could not be supported in his pretensions without 
the strong arm of the Kshatriya, or miHtary class, a 
large portion of the work is devoted to the definition of 
the Kshatriya's duties and an exaggerated delineation 
of the kingly character and office ; while the Vaisyas 
or agriculturists, and ^udras or servants, though 
essential to Manu's C'dturvarnya or fourfold social 
system, as well as the mixed classes, are little noticed. 
Here is an epitome of the twelve books : — 

After an account of the creation of the world in the first 
book, the four stages of a Brahman's life are the only subjects 
treated of in regular order in the second, third, fourth, fifth, 
and sixth books, four books being devoted to the duties of the 
religious student and married householder, and the sixth book 
treating of the last two stages of anchorite and religious mendi- 
cant. 

The seventh and eighth books propound the rules of govern- 
ment, principally, of course, for the guidance of the second 
great class or Kshatriyas, from which the king was chosen. The 
ninth book contains precepts on the subject of women, hus- 
band and wife, their offspring and the law of inheritance and 
division of property, with additional rules for kings, and a few 
precepts relative to the two remaining principal castes. It also 
describes the employments to which the several classes are 
restricted, and states the occupations permitted to Brahmans, 
Kshatriyas, Vaisyas, and S'udras in times of exigency and dis- 
tress. The eleventh book gives rules of expiation, both for the 
sins of the present life — especially sins against caste — and for 
the effects of offences committed in previous bodies, as shown 
in congenital diseases, &c. The twelfth continues the subject 
of the recompenses or consequences of acts, good or bad, as 
leading to reward in heaven or punishment in various hells, and 
to triple degrees of transmigration. It closes with directions as 
to the best means of obtaining final beatitude and absorption 
into the universal essence. 



HINDUISM. 57 

The simplicity of Manu's organization of classes, if 
it be not merely theoretical, bears witness to the great 
antiquity of a portion of the code. According to 
Book X. 3, 4, there are only four pure classes, as 
follow : — 

The Brahman, the Kshatriya, and the Vaisya constitute the 
three twice-born classes (as receiving a second spiritual birth 
through investiture with the sacred thread) ; the S'udra is once- 
born, and constitutes the fourth class ; there is no fifth class. 
From priority of birth, from superiority of origin (in being 
sprung from the mouth of the Creator), from possession of the 
Veda [i.e. from the right of repeating, teaching, and expound- 
ing it), and from a distinction in the reception of the sacrificial 
thread (as the most important of the twelve Sanskaras or puri- 
ficatory rites) the Brahman is the lord of all classes . 

A Brahman, whether learned or unlearned, is a mighty 
divinity, just as fire is a mighty divinity, whether consecrated or 
unconsecrated (ix. 317). 

In the tentli book, however, we have a more developed 
social system depicted, and a number of mixed castes are de- 
scribed as resulting from the intermarriage of the pure classes. 
They have a variety of names, such as Miirdhdvasikta, Md- 
hishya, Karana or Kdya-stha, Ambashtha or Vaidya, Ayogava, 
Dhigvanq, Pukkasa, Canddla, and are restricted to particular 
occupations. 

The superiority of the Brahmans in the Hindu 
lawyer's scheme is the hinge on which the whole 
social system turns. 

The Brahmans are supposed to constitute the great 
central body, around which all other classes and orders 
of beings revolve like satellites. Not only are they 
invested with . divine dignity, but they are bound 
together by the most stringent rules ; while the other 
three classes of soldiers, agriculturists, and servants 



58 HINDUISM. 

are made powerless for combined resistance by equally 
stringent regulations, one class being separated from 
the other by insurmountable barriers. 

It was found indeed necessary to conciliate the 
Kshatriya class. The most exalted eulogies were 
lavished on kings ; but Brahmans were to act as their 
advisers, and to have much of the judicial authority 
and interpretation of the laws in their own hands, and 
were always theoretically superior in rank — a circum- 
stance which led in the end to jealousies, feuds, and 
bloody contests between the first two classes. Certain 
privileges also naturally fell to the Vaisyas, and both 
they and the Kshatriyas were equally with the Brah- 
mans entitled to the appellation Dvi-ja^ ' twice born.' 
Their whole status, however, depended upon various 
domestic rites, to the due conduct of which the super- 
intendence of Brahmans was indispensable. 

In short, the distinction of caste and the inherent 
superiorky of one class over the three others were 
thought to be as much a law of nature and a matter 
of divine appointment as the creation of separate 
classes of animals, with insurmountable differences of 
physical constitution, such as elephants, lions, horses, 
and dogs. 

When the increase of the Brahmanical class com- 
pelled the secularization of many of its members, 
they were allowed to engage in the occupations of 
the other classes. Practice and theory then became 
very different, and in later times caste distinctions 
separated the Brahmans themselves, so that separate 
tribes adopted separate usages. It is essential, how- 
ever, that the original theory of the life of a Brahman 



HINDUISM. 59 

as laid down by Manu should be clearly understood. 
It may be described as follows : — 

Every Brahman had to pass through four Asramas, 
or conditions of life; that is to say, his life was 
divided into four periods according as he became 
successively, — i. Unmarried student {brahma-'cdri?i); 
2. Married householder {griha-sthd) \ 3. Anchorite 
{vdnaprastha) ; 4. Religious devotee {bhikshu or pa- 
rivrdjaka or sannydstn). 

As unmarried student the young Brahman was to 
reside with his preceptor until he had gained a 
thorough knowledge of the three Vedas. Very 
noteworthy are the twelve Sanskaras or * purificatory 
rites,* which purify a man from the taint of sin 
derived from his parents, and are enjoined with cer- 
tain variations on all the three first classes alike. 
They are as follow : — 



I. Garbhddhdna or garbha-lambhana, * ceremony on con 
ception ' ; 2. Punsavana, on the first indication of a living 
male's conception ; 3. Simantonnayana, arranging the parting 
of the mother's hair in the fourth, sixth, or eighth month of 
pregnancy ; 4. Jdta-karman^ touching an infant's tongue with 
honey and ghl thrice at birth ; 5. Ndma-karana, giving a 
name on the tenth or twelfth day after birth ; 6. Nishkramana^ 
taking out the child in the fourth month to see the sun ; 
7. Anna-prdlana, feeding it with rice between the fifth and 
eighth month ; 8. C'uddkarrnan, or caula, tonsure of the hair, 
except one lock, on the crown of the head, in the third year; 
9. Upanayanay induction into the order of a twice-born man by 
investiture with the sacred cord j 10. KeBnta, cutting off the 
hair, performed on a Brahman in his sixteenth year, on a Ksha- 
triya in his twenty-second, on a Vaisya in his twenty- fourth ; 
II. Samdvartana, solemn return home after completing a course 
F 



Oo HINDUISM. 

of study with a preceptor; 12. Vivdha, marriage, which com- 
pletes the purification and regeneration of the twice-born. 

Of the above rites — i, 2, 3, and 10, are little 
observed. The other eight are more worthy of 
attention; 8 and 9 are of considerable legal im- 
portance even in the present day, and 7 is still 
practised ; 7 and 1 2 are said to be the only rites 
allowed to Sudras, and the 1 2th, Vivdha^ ' marriage,' 
is a religious duty incumbent on all persons alike. 

Other Sanskaras practised in some parts of India, are men- 
tioned, such as Karna-vedha, ' boring the ears ' ; and occa- 
sionally the imparting of the Savitri or sacred Vedic text, com- 
monly called Gayatrl, which ought to be performed at Upana- 
yaiia^ is reserved for a separate ceremony four days later. 

One of the most important of the above Sanskaras 
is certainly Upanayana, induction into the order of 
a twice-born man by investiture with the sacred cord.' 
This rite is enjoined for a Brahman in his eighth 
year, for a Kshatriya in his eleventh, and for a Vaisya 
in his twelfth, though the time may be extended in 
each case. 

The sacred cord, which is generally a thin coil of three 
threads, commonly called Yajnopavita, is worn over 
the left shoulder, and allowed to hang doAvn diago- 
nally across the body to the right hip. The wear- 
ing of it by the three tmce-born classes is the mark 
of their second spiritual birth. There was some 
difference in the kind of thread worn, according to 
the class of the wearer, thus : 

The sacred cord of a Brahman must be of cotton so as to be 
put on over his head in a coil of three threads ; that of a 
Kshatriya, of hemp ; that of a Vaisya, of wool. 

The ceremony of induction begins by the youth's 



HINDUISM. 6l 

Standing opposite the sun, and walking thrice round 
the fire. The Guru then consecrates the Yajnopavita 
by repeating the Gayatri ten times. Then, girt with 
the thread, the youth asks ahus from the assembled 
company, to indicate that he undertakes to provide 
himself and his preceptor with food. The Guru 
then initiates him into the daily use of the sacred 
Savitri prayer (called Gayatri, because it is in the 
three-measured Gayatri metre), preceded by three 
suppressions of breath, the triliteral syllable Om and 
the three Vyahritis, or mystical words, B/iur, 
Bhuvah, Svar, and admits him to the privilege of 
repeating the three Vedas, and of perfonning other 
religious rites, none of which are allowed before 
investiture. The Gayatri prayer (Rig-veda, iii. 62; 
lo) may be thus translated : — 

Let us meditate (or, we meditate) on that excellent glory of 
the divine Vivifier. May he enlighten (or stimulate) our under- 
standings. {Tat savitur varenyam bhargo druasya dhimahi, 
dhiyo yo nah pracodayat.'\ 

This prayer is repeated, or muttered, vdth the aid 
of a rosaryi (Japa-mdld) five, ten, twenty-eight, or 
even one hundred and eight times at the two 
Sandhyas of sunrise and sunset ; and those who aim 
at great sanctity repeat it at the three Sandhyas, or 
divisions of the day, sunrise, noon, and sunset. The 
rite of investiture is concluded by the binding on 
of a girdle {mekhaia), made of Munja grass. 



* According to whether a man is a Vaishnava or S'aiva, 
rosaries made either of Tiilasi wood or Rudraksha berries are 
employed. The Vaishnava rosaries contain 1 08 beads, while 
the S'aiva have either 32 Rudraksha berries or that number 
doubled. 

F 2 



62 



HINDUISM. 



The young Brahman is then a Brakma-cdrl, or 
unmarried bachelor, and is supposed to reside with 
his preceptor till he has acquired a knowledge of the 
Veda. He is every day to bathe ; to offer oblations of 
water to the gods, holy sages, and departed ancestors ; 
and to feed the sacred fire with fuel. But he is 
forbidden to perform the regular Sraddha offerings 
to deceased persons till his studentship is completed. 
He is to abstain from meat, perfumes, unguents, sen- 
suality, wrath, covetousness, dancing, music, gambling, 
detraction of others, falsehood, impurity of all kinds, 
and is never to injure any being. At the end of his 
studentship the young Brahman is to perform the 
proper Sanskara ceremony called Samdvartana with 
the prescribed ablutions {snd?ia) on the occasion of his 
solemn return to his own home ;^ soon after which he 
is obliged to take a wife and to become a householder 
(Grihastha). As to marriage, the following directions 
are given by Manu : — 

_ Eight forms of marriage are enumerated, viz, , Brahma, Datva, 
Arsha, Prdjdpatya, Asitra, Gdiidharva, Rdkshasa, and PaUd'ca. 
Of these, the first four are the most approved for a Brahman, 
but the first is practically the only one now in use. The 
Gandharva marriage (' from affection vv^ithout any nuptial rite '), 
and Rakshasa ( ' marrying a girl carried off as a prize in war ') 
were allowable for Kshatriyas ; the Asura and Paisaca were 
prohibited. 

In modern times marriage ceremonies last for several days, 



- In the present day the residence of the young Brahman 
with a preceptor is not enforced, so that the ceremonies of 
Upanayana and Samavartana are made to succeed each other 
within a day or two, or may even take place on the same day. 



HINDUISM. 63 

and are accompanied with great festivities. They cannot be 
commenced till the Jyotishty or family astrologer, has fixed the 
auspicious day and hour. The bride is given away by her 
father or his representative at her own home. Perhaps the most 
important parts of the ceremony are the Saptapadi' or the 
leading of the bride three times round the sacred fire — each 
time in seven steps — the offering of the burnt oblation {homo) 
by the bridegroom, the binding together of the bride and bride- 
groom by a cord passed round their necks, and the tying to- 
gether of their dresses. The rite is of course commenced by the 
worship of the god Ganes'a, who wards off the obstacles by which 
all undertakings are liable to be thwarted through the malice 
of evil demons. 

After marriage, which, as we have already seen, is 
one of the twelve Sanskaras, and a religious duty in- 
cumbent on all, the married Brahman is to perform 
every day all the domestic duties of a householder, 
and especially the five Maha-yajnas, or great acts of 
worship;* viz. : — 

I. Brahma-yajna, 'worship of Brahman,' performed byre- 
petition of the Veda ; 2. Pitri-yajna, ' worship of departed 
ancestors ' by daily offerings of water and by periodical S'raddha 
ceremonies ; 3. Dcva-yajjia, ' worship of the gods ' by morning 
and evening oblations in fire, &c. ; 4. Bhiita-yajna, ' worship of 
all beings,' including good and evil spirits, animals, &c., by 
scattering rice grains, &c., on the ground outside the door for 
animals to devour;' 5. Manushya-yajna^ 'worship of men,' per- 
formed by hospitality to guests. 

Some of iftiese must be performed at the three Sandhyas, or 
private religious services at sunrise, mid-day, and sunset. 



' See 'Indian Wisdom,' p. 199. 

' This offering is called ball, and is made with a particular 
mantra, part of which is as follows : ' Om to the Visvadevas, 
to the universal gods, to men, beasts, birds, reptiles, the 



64 HINDUISM. 

In all Hindu systems diet is a most important sub- 
ject, for food is supposed not only to affect the blood, 
but the whole character, moral and religious. The 
food a man eats must be ceremonially (not chemi- 
cally) pure, or he instantly becomes degraded. This 
doctrine has been carried to such a point in modern 
times, that the preservation of caste depends in great 
part on strict adherence to the rules laid down on the 
subject of food, its preparation, and the persons in 
whose company it is eaten (see chap. xi.). Manu's 
chief directions are as follow : — 

The eating of flesh and of fish ^ by twice-born men is, as a 
general rule, prohibited, the drinking of spirituous liquor is 
included among the five great sins (the other four being the 
killing of a Brahman, steaHng gold from a Brahman, adultery 
with the wife of a religious teacher, and association with any 
one guilty of these crimes), and many other kinds of food, such 
as garlic, onions, leeks, mushrooms, and carnivorous birds are 
forbidden. But it is a proof of the antiquity of Manu's code 
that it permits the eating of meat, and even the drinking of 
wine on certain solemn occasions (Manu, v. 56), and that it 
directs flesh meat to be eaten at particular S'raddhas (iii. 12, 3 j 
iv. 131). 

With regard to the householder's wife and the con- 
dition of women as depicted by Manu, we may observe 
that their position is one of entire subordination, 



Siddhas, the Yakshas, the Daityas, Pretas, Pisacas, trees, and 
whoever desires to have food receive this ball from me. Om, 
may the ants, worms, insects, and whoever are hungry, being 
imprisoned in corporeal frames, receive this food offered by me. 
Om to the Bhutas and all beings, be satisfied with the ball 
scattered by me. Om to the crows, to the twin dogs, S'yama 
and S'avala, to the dogs, to the Candalas, &c. 

^ Some tribes of Brahmans are now permitted to eat fish. 



HINDUISM. 65 

amounting in theory to a complete abncgn.lion of 
what in these days would be called ' women's rights.' 

A Brahman who has been in succession a BraJuna- 
"cdri and Grihastha ought properly to pass through 
two other stages of existence as a Vdnaprastha or 
hermit, and as a Bhikshu or Saiinydsin ; i. e. a reli- 
gious devotee who has given up all worldly con- 
nections. But these are not now obligatory. 

As to death, the filial piety of the Hindus is no- 
tably manifested in the importance attached to funeral 
rites and to Sraddhas. These must be distinguished 
from each other. Funeral rites {antyeshti) are ama?i- 
gala, 'inauspicious,' while Sraddhas are maftgala, 
' auspicious.' To understand this it should be borne 
in mind that when a man dies, his sthuia-sarira, or 
' gross body,' is burned ^ (this being in :act the 
anfyd zshfi, last sacrifice offered in fire), but his soul 
cannot quit the gross body without a vehicle of some 
kind. This vehicle is the linga-sarira or 'subtile 
body,' sometimes described as angushtha-mdtra, 'of 
the size of a thumb,' invested in which the deceased 
man remains hovering near the burning-ground. He 
is then in the condition of a simple individual soul 
invested with a subtile body, and is called d^preta, i.e. 
a departed spirit or ghost. He has no real body 
capable of enjoying or suffering anything, and is 
consequently in a restless, uncomfortable plight. 
Moreover, while in this condition he is held to be an 



' Infants under two years old, however, must be'buried, not 
burnt. — See 'Indian Wisdom,' p. 302. Great ascetics (Sanny- 
asis) and holy men (Sadhus) are also generally buried, and 
their tombs called Samadhis. 



66 HINDUISM. 

impure being, and all the relations who celebrate his 
funeral rites are held to be impure also until the first 
^raddha is performed. Furthermore, if he dies away 
from his kindred, who alone can perform the funeral 
ceremonies, and who are perhaps unaware of his 
death, and unable - therefore to perform them, he 
becomes a pisaca, or foul wandering ghost, disposed 
to take revenge for its misery upon all living creatures 
by a variety of malignant acts. 

The object, then, of the antyeshti, or funeral rites, 
which are celebrated for ten days after death, is not 
only to soothe or give sdnti by libations of conse- 
crated ^vater to the troubled spirit, but to furnish the 
preta with an intermediate body, between the Unga or 

* subtile ' and the sthula or ' gross body ' — with a 
body, that is to say, which is capable of enjoying or 
suffering, and which is composed of gross particles, 
though not of the same kind as the earthly gross 
body. 

In this manner only can the preta obtain gati^ or 

* progress ' omvard, either through the temporary 
heaven, or else through the temporary hells (which 
as we have seen are not places of eternal punishment 
but merely purgatories) to other births and ultimate 
emancipation. The following is a brief account of 
the more modern funeral ceremonies and subsequent 
^raddhas. 

On the first day after death z. pinda, or round ball (generally 
of some kind of flour or of rice and milk), is offered with libations 
of water, &c., on which the preta is supposed to feed, and 
which endows it with the rudiment or basis of the requisite 
body, whatever that basis may be. Next day another //«^a is 
offered with water, &c., which gives it, perhaps, limbs, such as 
arms and legs. Then it receives hands, feet, <S:c. This goes 



HINDUISM. 67 

on for ten days, and the offering of the pinda on the tenth day 
gives the head. No sooner does the preta obtain a complete 
body than it becomes a pitri^ when, instead of being regarded 
as impure, it is held to be a deva, or 'deity,' and practically 
worshipped as such in the /;-a^c//«a ceremonies, the first of which 
takes place on the nth day after death. Hence, a sraddha is 
not a funeral ceremony, but 2. pitri-yajna, or worship of departed 
ancestors, which worship, however, is something different from 
pujd to a god. It is performed by making offerings of round 
balls of rice, flour, &c., with accompaniments of sacred grass, 
flowers, and sprinklings of water, and with repetitions of 
mantras and texts from the Sama-veda, the whole ceremonial 
being conducted, not in a temple, but at any sacred spot, such 
as the margin of a river, or even in private houses. The cere- 
mony is continued at stated periods with a view to accelerate 
the gati or ' progress ' of the pitris onwards to heaven, and then 
through the various stages of bliss before described (see p. 51). 
The efficacy oi Srdddhas, performed at Gaya (see pp. 176, 177), 
is this, that wherever in this progress onwards departed rela- 
tives may have arrived, the S'raddhas take them at once to 
Vaikuntha, or Vishnu's heaven. 

The departed relatives especially entitled to benefit 
by the Sraddha rites are as follows : — 

I. Father, grandfather, great grandfather ; 2. Mother, 
mother's father and grandfather ; 3. Stepmother, if any ; 4. 
Father's mother, grandmother, and great grandmother ; 5. 
Father's brothers ; 6. Mother's brothers ; 7. Father's sisters ; 
8. Mother's sisters ; 9. Sisters and brothers ; 10. Fathers-in-law. 
An eleventh person is sometimes added, viz. the family spiritual 
teacher {giirii). 

Sraddhas are of various kinds, and performed at 
various times, such as Niiya, regular; Pdrvay^a, at parti- 
cular changes of the moon ; Ekoddishta, on special 
occasions and with reference to particular persons. 
These ceremonies with those at birth (see p. 59) and 
death, at investiture with the sacred \}:ixt2,^{upanayand) 
and marriage {yivdhd) already described, constitute 



Oo HINDUISxM. 

in the present day the most important religious rites 
among the Hindus. 

Some Sraddhas — especially those first performed 
after the termination of the funeral rites — are ac- 
companied with much feasting and costly gifts to the 
Brahmans invited to assist at their celebration, and 
some are actually commuted for this feeding and 
feasting of Brahmans.^ 

The performance of the first ^raddha is more 
particularly marked by largesses of all kinds, and 
sometimes, it is said, costs a rich man a sum equiva- 
lent to several thousand pounds. It should take place 
on the eleventh day, or the day after mourning expires, 
and then at least once a month for twelve successive 
months, this monthly {indsikd) ceremony being called 
byManu Anvdhdrya. Afterwards it must be performed 
annually {Sdnivatsarika) on all anniversaries of a 
father's death. The following should be noted : — 

The offering of the Pinda, or ball of rice, &c., to deceased 
fathers at a S'raddha is of great importance in regard to the 
Hindu law of inheritance. It furnishes the principal evidence 
of kinship, on which the title to participate in the patrimony is 
founded, no power of making wills being recognized in Manu, 
or any other authoritative code of Hindvi jurisprudence. The 



' Many S'raddhas certainly appear to have more reference to 
the living than to the dead, and others seem to be performed by 
a process of feeding and feeing Brahmans {Bt'ahmaiia-santar- 
fana), who are supposed to represent the Pitris. Some of these 
are called Hasta-irdddha, Hiranya-h-dddha, Avidnna-irdddha, 
Dadhi-irdddha, Ndndi-h'dddha. The last is a homage paid to 
ancestors before performing such joyous ceremonies as marriage, 
investiture with the sacred thread {iipanayana), and birth cere- 
monies. 



HINDUISM. 69 

Gotra, or family, is in fact a corporate body bound together by 
what may be called Sapmda^v^ and Samdnodaka-^x^ . All 
who offer the ball of rice {piiidd) and water {iidakd) together 
are Sapindas and Samdnodakas to each other, and a kind of 
intex-communication and interdependence is thus continually 
maintained between the dead and living members of a family, 
extending to three generations on both sides. 

As regards transmigration, Manu declares that 
the triple order of the passage of the soul through 
the highest, middle, and lowest stages of existence 
results from good or bad acts, words, and thoughts 
produced by the influence of the three Gunas, Sattva, 
Rajas, and Tamas (see p. 1 94 of the Appendix) ; and that 
for sins of act, a man takes a vegetable or mineral form; 
for sins of word, the form of a bird or beast ; for sins of 
thought, that of a man of the lowest caste. A triple 
self-command in thought, word, and deed leads to 
emancipation from all births, and. final beatitude. 

A few specimens of Manu's moral precepts are 
here subjoined : — 

Daily perform thine own appointed work 

Unweariedly ; and to obtain a friend — 

A sure companion to the future world — 

Collect a store of virtue like the ants 

Who garner up their treasures into heaps ; 

For neither father, mother, wife, nor son, 

Nor kinsman, will remain beside thee then, 

When thou art passing to that other home — ■ 

Thy virtue will thy only comrade be (iv. 238, 239). 

Single is every living creature born, 

Single he passes to another world, 

Single he eats the fruits of evil deeds, 

Single, the fruit of good ; and when he leaves 

His body like a log or heap of clay 

Upon the ground, his kinsmen walk away ; 



70 HINDUISM. 

Virtue alone stays by him at the tomb, 

And bears him through the dreary trackless gloom 

(iv. 240, 242). 
Depend not on another, rather lean 
Upon thyself; tmst to thine own exertions. 
Subjection to another's will gives pain ; 
True happiness consists in self-reliance (iv. 160). 

Strive to complete the task thou hast commenced ; 

Wearied, renew thy efforts once again ; 

Again fatigued, once more the work begin ; 

So shalt thou earn success and fortune win (ix. 300) 

There are at least nineteen other well-known codes ^ 
besides that of Manu. Of these the best-known is 
that of Ydmavalkya, which, with its most celebrated 
commentary the Mitdkshard by Vtjnd?iesvara, is now 
the principal authority of the School of Benares and 
Middle India. It seems originally to have emanated 
from a school of the White Yajur-veda in Mithila or 
North Behar, just as we have seen that the code of 
the Mananvas did from a school of the Black Yajur- 
veda. Book i. 2 makes the author say : — 

The chief of devout sages (Yajnavalkya), dwelling in Mithila, 
having reflected for a moment, said to the Munis, ' Listen to 
the laws which prevail in the country where the black antelope 
is found.' (cf. Manu, ii. 23.) 

The following may be noted concerning Yajnaval- 
kya's work : — 

It is much more concise than that of Manu, being all com- 
prised in three books instead of twelve, which circumstance 
leads to the inference that it has suffered even more curtailment 
at the hands of successive revisers of the original text than the 
Code of the Manavas. Like that code it seems to have been 
preceded by a Vriddha and a Vrihat version, and like that code, 



See 'Indian Wisdom,' p. 211, 304. 



HINDUISM. 7 1 

tlie whole work, as we now possess it, is written in the ordi- 
nary S loka metre. The first book is chiefly on social and 
caste duties {dcdra) ; the second is mainly on administrative 
judicature and civil and criminal law {vyavaAdra) ; the third is 
principally on devotion, purification, expiation, penance {prdyai- 
'ciita), &c. The Mitakshara commentary follows the same 
arrangement, and is divided also into three parts. 

Although Yajnavalkya's code must have repre- 
sented the customs and practices prevalent in a dis- 
trict (Mithila) situated in a more easterly part of 
India, yet nearly every precept in the first book, and 
a great many in the second and third, have their 
parallels in similar precepts occurring throughout the 
code of the Manavas. 

Nevertheless, it represents a later stage of Hindi! develop- 
ment. Its arrangement is much more systematic. It presents 
fewer repetitions and inconsistencies, and less confusion of re- 
ligion, morality, and philosophy, with civil and criminal law. 
As to the date of Yajnavalkya's law-book, it has been con- 
jecturally placed in the middle of the first century of our era. 
The period of its first compilation cannot, of course, be fixed 
with certainty, but internal evidence clearly indicates that the 
present redaction is much more recent than that of Manu's 
law-book. 

Two verses from Yajnavalkya's code literally 
translated are here subjoined as specimens : — 

The success of every action depends on destiny and on a 
man's own effort ; but destiny is evidently nothing but (the 
result) of a man's act in a former state of existence (i. 348; 
cf. Manu, vii. 205). 

Some expect the whole result from destiny or from the inhe- 
rent nature (or force of a thing) ; some expect it from the lapse 
of time ; and some from a man's own effort ; other persons of 
wiser judgment expect it from a combination of all these 
(i. 349)- 



72 HINDUISM. 



CHAPTER VI. 

THE BUDDHISTIC MOVEMENT, AND ITS INFLUENCE 
ON BRAHMANISM. 

A BRIEF account of the contact and conflict of Bud- 
dhism with Brahmanism, and of the introduction of 
Buddhistic ideas into the reHgious creed of the 
Brahmans, is essential to an accurate dehneation of 
Hinduism. And here we are able to feel that — 
chronologically at least— we are not groping our way 
through a region of mere conjecture. We seem at 
last to have planted our feet on a firmer stand- 
point. Our story assumes more of the character of 
history. The date usually fixed for Buddha's death 
is 543 B.C. Whether this precise year for one of 
the greatest epochs in the religious history of the 
human race can be accepted is doubtful, but it is 
tolerably certain that Buddhism arose in Behar and 
Eastern Hindustan about five centuries B.C., and 
that it spread with great rapidity, not by force of 
arms, or coercion of any kind, like Muhammadanism, 
but by the sheer persuasiveness of its doctrines. 

The first tolerably trustworthy date in Indian his- 
tory is the era of C'andra-gupta ( = Sandrokottus ^) 



* The minister of C'andra-gupta was the celebrated and 
crafty Brahman Canakya, the author of many well-known 
precepts of government and polity. In the political dram.a 



HINDUISM. 73 

the founder of the Maurya dynasty, who, after making 
himself master of PataHputra (PaUbothra, Patna) and 
the kingdom of Magadha (Behar), extended his domi- 
nion over all Hindustan, and presented a determined 
front towards Alexander's successor Seleukos Nikator, 
the date oi the commencement of whose reign was 
about 312 B.C. When the latter contemplated in- 
vading India from his kingdom of Bactria, so effectual 
was the resistance offered by C'andra-gupta that the 
Greek thought it politic to form an alliance with the 
Hindu king, and sent his own countryman Mega- 
sthenes as an ambassador to reside at his court. 

To this circumstance we owe the first authentic 
account" of Indian manners, customs, and religious 
usages by an intelligent observer who was not a 
native, and this narrative of Megasthenes, preserved 
by Strabo, furnishes a basis on which we may found 
a fair inference that Brahmanism and Buddhism 
existed side by side in India on amicable terms in 
the fourth century B.C. There is even ground for 
believing that King C'andra-gupta himself was in 
secret a Buddhist, though in public he paid homage 
to the gods of the Brahmans ; at any rate, there 
can be little doubt that his successor Asoka did for 
Buddhism w^hat Constantine did for Christianity — 
gave an impetus to its progress by adopting it as his 
own creed. Buddhism, then, became the state reli- 
gion, the national faith of the whole kingdom of 



called Mudra-rakshasa, * Signet-ring Rakshasa,' he is repre- 
sented as having effected the death of King Nanda and secured 
the accession of C'andra-gupta to the throne. 



74 HINDUISM. 

Magadha, and therefore of a great portion of 
India. 

This A^oka is by some regarded as identical with 
C'andra-gupta ; at any rate, their characters and much 
of their history are similar. He is probably the same 
as King Priyadar^i, whose edicts on stone pillars 
enjoining Dhartna, or the practice of virtue and uni- 
versal benevolence, are scattered over India from 
Katak in the east and Gujarat in the west to Alla- 
habad, Delhi, and Afghanistan on the north-west. 

What then is Buddhism ? It is certainly not Brah- 
manism, yet it arose out of Brahmanism, and from 
the first had much in common with it. Brahmanism 
and Buddhism are closely interwoven with each other, 
yet they are very different from each other. Brah- 
manism is a religion which may be described as all 
theology, for it makes God everything, and everything 
God. Buddhism is no religion at all, and certainly 
no theology, but rather a system of duty, morality, and 
benevolence, without real deity, prayer, or priest. 

The name Buddha is simply an epithet meaning 
' the perfectly enlightened one/ or rather one who, 
by perfect knowledge of the truth, is liberated from 
all existence, and who, before his own attainment of 
Nirvana, or ' extinction of worldly existence,' reveals 
to the world the method of obtaining it. 

The Buddha with whom we are concerned was the 
last of a series of Buddhas who had appeared in 
previous cycles of time, and fourth of the present cycle. 

He was born at Kapila-vastu, a city and kingdom 
at the foot of the mountains of Nepal, his father 
Suddhodana being the king of that country, and his 



HINDUISM. 75 

mother Mayd-devi being the daughter of King Su- 
prabuddha. Hence he belonged to the Kshatriya 
class, and the name of his tribe was Sakya, while 
his name of Gautama (or Gotama) was that of his 
family. He is said to have arrived at supreme know- 
ledge under the Bodhi tree, or * tree of wisdom ' ^ 
(familiarly called ' the Bo tree '), at Gaya, in Behar 
{Magadha). The year 588 B.C., usually given for this 
event, cannot be trusted. . He probably commenced 
propagating the new faith at Benares about 500 B.C. 

We have already pointed out that Buddhism was a 
protest against the tyranny of Brahmanism and caste. 
According to the Buddha, all men are equal. All 
men, too, he taught, must suffer in their own persons 
either in the present life, or in future lives, the conse- 
quences of their own acts. All atoning sacrifice, there- 
fore, became meaningless and useless.' The penalty 
of sin could not be transferred to another — it could 
only be borne by the sinner himself, just as the reward 
of virtue could only be enjoyed by the virtuous man 
himself. To this end men might be degraded to the 
condition of the lower animals, of insects, and even 
inanimate objects, or they might rise in the scale of 
being, and thus expiate or be recompensed for their 
acts. Hence, of course, all infliction of suffering on 
animals was prohibited. In the edicts of Asoka the 



* This tree — aPTpal— still exists behind the old Buddhist temple 
near Gaya ; or, rather, a tree which is said to be the actual tree 
is perpetuated there by constantly planting new trees in the de- 
cayed stem of the old. I saw the tree myself" in the beginning 
of 1876. Some of the Burmese Buddhists who had come to 
greet the Prince of Wales, were then meditating under the tree. 
G 



76 HINDUISM. 

greatest tenderness towards them was enjoined, even 
to their medical treatment, if sick or diseased. 

Moreover, as actions, good or bad, lead to repeated 
existences, the great end and object of every man was 
to attain non-existence {nirvdfta) by self-mortification, 
austerity {tapas), and the suppression of all action. 

Here, then, we have five marked features of Bud- 
dhism : I. disregard of all caste distinctions ; 2. abo- 
lition of animal sacrifice and of vicarious suffering ; 

3. great stress laid on the doctrine of transmigration ; 

4. great importance assigned to self-mortification, 
austerity, and abstract meditation, ' as an aid to the 
suppression of all action; 5. concentration of all 
human desires on the cessation of transmigration. 

There is still a sixth, which is the most noteworthy 
of all : that the Buddha recognized no spirit or soul as 
distinct from material organization, and no Supreme 
Spirit ; the Hindu gods were merely orders of beings. 

A Buddhist, therefore, never really prays, he only 
meditates on the perfections of the Buddha and the 
hope of attaining Nirvana ; though practically he is 
subject to an all-powerful god — a god to be got rid of 
as soon as possible — in Karman ' act.' 

Nor can he have any theological creed. His only 
confession of faith is, ' I have recourse to ' (or ' take 
refuge with ') ' Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha ' — to 
the Buddha, the Law or Doctrine, and the Community 
of Monks. These three are sometimes called the 
three gems, and constitute a sort of Buddhistic trinity. 

With regard to Dharma, or Doctrine, we may remark 
that convocations or assemblies of monks seem to 
have formulated the teaching of early Buddhism. 



HINDUISM. 77 

It is said that three synods or conferences, were 
held after the Buddha's death, to settle the sacred 
canon of scripture, which was afterwards comprised 
in three collections called the Tri-pitaka or * three 
baskets,' consisting of: i. -Sz/Z/'^jV the discourses of the 
Buddha ; 2. Dharma, the duties of the masses of the 
people (sometimes called Abhi-dhar??ta, though this 
term should be restricted to the philosophical doctrines 
taught as a supplement to Dharma) ; 3. Vi?iaya, rules 
of discipline for the monks. 

To enter upon a detailed description of the 
Buddhist Dharma is not part of our plan. We must 
confine ourselves to the briefest possible summary 
of its doctrines and precepts. 

Four great truths are supposed to have been re- 
vealed to Buddha as the first result of his long period 
of abstract meditation. These together constitute 
what is commonly called the ' Law or doctrine of the 
Wheel' They are :— 

I. Suffering exists wherever there is life. 2. Suffering is 
caused by desire. 3. Release from suffering depends on the sup- 
pression of desire and extinction of being [nijivdna) 4. Nir- 
vana can only be obtained by following the paths pointed out 
by the Buddha of the period, who has achieved supreme know- 
ledge in each cycle of the universe and who reveals to the 
world the method of obtaining it. These paths are eight in 
number, four of them, viz. right vision, right thoughts, right 
words, and right actions, being applicable to all men ; the other 
four being reserved for ascetics only. 

These others are right living as a recluse, right application 
to the study of the law, right memory in recollecting the law, 
and right meditation. 

Hence, it is clear, that the Buddha regarded men 

G 2 



78 HINDUISM. 

as divided into two classes ; the first, who are still 
attached to a worldly life, are called Updsakas or 
' laymen.' The second, who by self-mortification are 
bent on being delivered from it, are called S'ra?nanas, 
' ascetics,' or 'monks, ' and, if they wander from place 
to place, Bhikshus or Parivrdjakas^ ' religious mendi- 
cants.' They are only priests in the sense of being 
teachers. Of priests in the strict sense the Buddhist 
religion has none ; for where there is no god, there can 
be no need of propitiation, or even of prayer, though 
a short form of words is repeated, or written down 
and turned in a wheel,^ as a kind of charm against 
diseases and malignant demons, and as having, like 
other acts, a kind of mechanical efficacy. Both 
classes of men — laymen and ascetics — must equally 
practise Dharma^ * the law,' to avoid greater misery, 
either in future births, or in one of the 136 hells; 
for the passing through repeated births, even in the 
most degraded forms of life, is not sufficient punish- 
ment for the effacement of demerit, without the 
endurance of terrific torments in numerous hells. 
There are ten negative prohibitions, and eighteen 
positive injunctions. Of the prohibitions five are for 
all ; viz., Kill not. Steal not. Commit no adaltery. 
Lie not. Drink no strong drink. 

The other five are for ascetics or monks ; viz.. Eat 
no food, except at stated times. Abstam from dances, 
theatres, songs, and music. Use no ornaments or 
perfumes. Use no luxurious beds. Receive no gold 
nor silver. 

' One form is Om manipadffie hum, ' Om ! the jewel in tke 
lotus ! Amen ! ' Or else Amitdya Om, ' Om ! to the im- 
measurable One.' 



HINDUISM. 79 

Of the eighteen positive injunctions there are six 
perfections of conduct {PdramitdsY- incumbent on 
all, viz : — 

I. Charity or benevolence {ddnd). 2. Virtue or moral good- 
ness {Jtld). 3. Patience and forbearance {kskdnit). 4. Forti- 
tude (z^frja). 5. Meditation (^//5;'a««). 6. Knowledge (/r(7;«<z). 
Of these that which especially characterizes Buddhism is the 
perfection of benevolence displayed towards all living beings. 

Even self-sacrifice for the good of animals and 
inferior creatures of all kinds is a duty. 

It is recorded of the Buddha himself, that in former 
existences he frequently gave himself up as a sub- 
stituted victim in the place of doves and other innocent 
creatures, to satisfy the appetites of hawks and beasts 
of prey ; and on one occasion meeting with a famished 
tigress unable to feed her cubs, he was so overcome 
with compassion that he sacrificed his own body to 
supply the starving family with food. 

Besides these six positive injunctions for all, there 



I. To dress only in coats of rags. 2. To have a coat in 
three pieces sewn together with the owner's own hands. 3. To 
cover the coat of rags with a yellow cloak. 4. To eat only one 
meal daily. 5. Never to eat after noon. 6. To live only on 
food collected from door to door in a wooden bowl. 7. To 
live for part of the year in woods and jungles. 8. To have no 
other shelter but the leaves of trees. 9. To have no other fur- 
niture but a carpet. 10. To sit, and not to lie down, on this 
carpet during sleep. II. To sit with no other support than the 
trunk of a tree. 12. To frequent cemeteries and burning- 
grounds every month for meditation on the vanity of life. 



Leading to the shore of Nirvana. 



8o HINDUISM. 

These rules of conduct include many secondary 
precepts ; for instance, not only is untruthfulness 
prohibited, but all bad language ; not only is patience 
enjoined, but the bearing of injuries, resignation under 
misfortune, humility, repentance, and confession of 
sin to one another. This last was required to be 
practised by all priests or ascetics twice a month, and, 
it is said, that King Asoka enjoined on his subjects a 
great quinquennial expiatory ceremony for the prac- 
tice of confession and almsgiving.^ 

There remains the question — what has been the 
probable influence of the Buddhistic movement on 
Brahmanism? The answer is — Brahmanism has 
taken from Buddhism the abolition of sacrifices, great 
tenderness towards animal life, great intensity of 
belief in the doctrine of transmigration, and in the 
efficacy of tapas or self-mortification as a source of 
power in accelerating progress towards final eman- 
cipation.2 

It has even received from Buddhism a tendency to. 
recognize caste as an evil, or at least as an imperfec- 
tion to be got rid of under certain circumstances and 
on certain occasions. It is an admitted fact that, 



* One of tliese great ceremonies was witnessed by the Chinese 
pilgrim and traveller, Hiouen Thsang, at Nalanda. See 
Wheeler's 'History of India,' vol. iii. p. 275. (See also the 
Rev. J. Robson's * Hinduism, and its Relations to Chris- 
tianity.') 

^ Hinduism has borrowed ideas from Buddhism in many 
minor points, such as the veneration for the footprints of divine 
and holy personages. Notably, too, it has fixed its Tirthas at 
many places held sacred by the Buddhists, such as Gaya. 



HINDUISM. 8 1 

although caste in the end has always reasserted itself, 
various Vaishnava and isaiva reformers "^ and founders 
of sects, have imitated Buddha in requiring their 
followers to drop caste-distinctions; and it is well 
known that at the meetings of S'dktas or Td72trikas^ 
(see p. 122) and at certain sacred places of pilgrimage 
(such as Puri in Orissa, and Tripati), caste, so far at 
least as the eating of food is concerned, is for a time 
entirely laid aside.- In short, Brahmanism and Bud- 
dhism appear to have blended, or as it were, melted 
into each other, after each had reciprocally parted 
with something, and each had imparted something. At 
any rote it may be questioned whether Buddhism was 
ever forcibly expelled from any part of India by direct 
persecution, except, perhaps, in a few isolated centres 
of Brahmanical fanaticism, such as the neighbourhood 
of Benares. Even in Benares the Chinese traveller 
Hiouen Thsang, found Brahmanism and Buddhism 
flourishing amicably side by side in the 7th century 
of our era.^ In the South of India the Buddha's 
doctrines seem to have met with acceptance at an 
early date ; and Ceylon was probably converted as 



^ The Ldngaits of the South of India have theoretically no 
caste among themselves. They say we all belong to a fifth 
caste. The same may be said of the Vaishnavas of Bengal, 
followers of Caitanya, of various orders of ascetics and other 
sects. See Chapter X. 

* In some parts of India the very name for caste is Bhram, 
' error,' and the temple of Jagannath is a temple of Concord for 
all castes. 

^ At Ellora the three series of Buddhistic, Brahmanical, and 
Jain caves all run into each other, as if they co-existed. 



82 HINDUISM. 

early as B.C. 240, soon after the third Buddhist council 
held under King A^oka. In other parts of India 
there was probably a period of Brahmanical hostility, 
and perhaps of occasional persecution ; but eventually 
Buddhism was taken by the hand, and drawn back 
into the Brahmanical system by the Brahmans them- 
selves who met it halfway, and ended by boldly 
adopting the Buddha as an incarnation of Vishnu. 
This has always been the astute policy of the Brah- 
mans of India. They have perceived the power of 
compromise, and overcome opposition by wise conces- 
sions and partial adaptations. It is thus that they have 
always enticed dissenters back to their caste-system 
It was thus that they became Buddhists to the 
Buddhists that they might win the Buddhists. Only a 
small section of the Buddhist community resisted all 
conciliation, and these are probably represented by 
the present sect of Jains (see p. 2 2 1 of the Appendix). 
Be the actual state of the case as it may, nothing 
can be clearer than the fact that Buddhism has dis- 
appeared from India (the island of Ceylon being 
excepted), and that it has not done so v/ithout having 
largely contributed towards the moulding of Brah- 
manism into the Hinduism of the present day. 



HINDUISM- 83 



CHAPTER VII. 

DEVELOPMENT OF HINDUISM AND THE DOCTRINE 
OF TRIPLE MANIFESTATION {T?'t-?nurti). 

The period marked by the disappearance of Buddhism 
out of India is sometimes called the ' Revival of Brah- 
manism.' If this term be adopted, then ^ankaracarya, 
one of the strictest and most learned of Brahmans, 
and a noted philosopher who flourished in the South 
of India about the end of the seventh or beginning 
of the eighth century,^ ought to be called the great 
Revivalist preacher. Brahmanism, however, never re- 
vived in its purity, and long before the time of Sankara 
had degenerated. The term Brahmanism is more 
properly restricted to the purely pantheistic and not 
necessarily idolatrous system evolved by the Brahmans 
out of the half-monotheistic, half-pantheistic religion 
of the Veda. 

This system which was fully developed in the 
Vedanta philosophy, and is commonly called Advaita 
Non-dualism, insists, as we have seen, on the unity of 
all being. 

But it has also other characteristics. It may be 
described as in one sense the most self-annihilating 



' He is said to have revived the worship of S'iva, and is de- 
scribed by some as an incarnation of S'iva. Others deny his 
preference for the god S'iva, and make him out to have been 
rather a Vaishnava in his religious proclivities. 



84 HINDUISM. 

system in the world, for it asserts that there can be 
no real self (afman) existing separately from the one 
self-existent Supreme Self, called Paraindtman or 
Brahman (nom. case, Brahma), and that when by the 
act of that Self the individuated spirits of men are 
allowed for a time an apparent separate existence, the 
aim of such spirits should be to be blended once more 
with the one Eternal Self in entire self-annihilation. 
A Brahman who holds this doctrine thinks the reli- 
gion of the Christian, who is conscious of severance 
from God, and yearns for reunion with Him, and yet 
does not wish his own self-consciousness to be merged 
in God, a very selfish kind of creed, compared with 
his own. It is evident, however, that there may be 
more real selfishness in the self-annihilating creed. 
For whatever may be said about the bliss of complete 
union {sdyujya) with the Supreme Spirit, the true 
aim of Brahmanism, pure and simple, is not so much 
extinction of self, as of repeated bodily existences for 
the sake of release from the troubles of life, and from 
the consequences of activity. 

The term Hinduism, on the other hand, best ex- 
presses Brahmanism after it had degenerated — to wit, 
that complicated system of polytheistic doctrines and 
caste-usages which has gradually resulted out of the 
mixture of Brahmanism and Buddhism, with the non- 
Aryan creeds of Dravidians and aborigines. Hence 
Hinduismissomething very different from Brahmanism, 
though the one is derived from the other. Hinduism 
is like a huge irregular structure which has spread 
itself over an immense surface by continual additions 
and accretions. Its present aspect is that of an ancient 



HINDUISM. 85 

overgrown fabric, with no apparent unity of design — 
patched, pieced, restored and enlarged in all direc- 
tions, inlaid with eveiy variety of idea, and, although 
looking as if ready at any moment to fall into ruins, 
still extending itself so as to cover every hole and 
corner of available ground, and still held together, 
and kept in its place, because supported by a hard 
foundation of Brahmanism and caste. It is only, 
however, by the practice of a kind of universal tolera- 
tion and receptivity — carried on through more than 
two thousand years — that Hinduism has arrived at its 
present condition.^ It has first borne mth and then 
accepted, and so to speak, digested and assimilated 
something from all creeds. It has opened its doors 
to all comers on the two conditions of admitting the 
spiritual supremacy of the Brahmans j and conform- 
ing to certain caste-rules about food, intermarriage, and 
professional pursuits. In this manner it has adopted 
much of the Fetishism of the Negrito aborigines 
of India ; it has stooped to the practices of various 
hill tribes, and has not scrupled to encourage the 
adoration of the fish, the boar, the serpent, rocks, 
stones, and trees; it has borrowed ideas from the 
various cults of the Dravidian races, and it may even 
owe something to Christianity. Above all, it has 
appropriated, as we have seen, nearly every doctrine 



' Moor, in his * Pantheon ' (p. 402), tells us that a learned 
Pandit once observed to him that the English were a new 
people, and had only the record of one Avatara, but the Hindiis 
were an ancient people, and had accounts of a great many, and 
that if the Puranas were examined, they would probably be 
found to record the incarnation of Christ. 



S6 



HIxVDUISM 



of Buddhism except its atheism, its denial of the eter- 
nity of soul, and its levelling of caste-distinctions. 

Of course it will be held that in investigating the 
causes of the development of Hinduism, and its capa- 
city for almost universal adaptation, we are bound in 
fairness to examine it from the standpoint of the Hin- 
dus themselves ; we ought to go to the Hindu's own 
authorities ; we must appeal to the Veda, the Upani- 
shads and the philosophical works founded on them. 

What then have we already learnt about the creeds 
inculcated by these books ? We know that they teach 
pantheism pure and simple. But they do more, they 
propound a most subtle theory of evolution and 
development. 

Their doctrine is, that the one sole, self-existing 
Supreme Self, the only really existing Essence, the 
one eternal Germ of all things, delights in infinite ex- 
pansion, in infinite manifestations of itself, in infinite 
creation, dissolution, and re-creation, through infinite 
varieties and diversities of operation. 

This is, so to speak, the preamble of Hinduism, and 
it is stated with great poetical power in a celebrated 
hymn of the Rig-veda, part of which has been trans- 
lated at page 26. 

The very name ' Brahman ' (neut. from root ^n'/i, ' to 
grow') given to the Eternal Essence, is expressive of 
this growth, this expansion, this universal development 
and diffusion. 

Hence, all visible form Is an emanation from God, 
and hence, to begin with the lowest visible objects, — 
stones, rivers, mountains, plants, trees, animals, and 
men — these are but steps in the infinite evolution of 



HINDUISM. 87 

his being. Hence, also a series of higher forms of 
existence, such as demigods, good and evil spirits, 
inferior gods, superior gods, is traceable upwards in 
an ascending scale from man, till three principal 
divine personages, each associated with a consort, to 
show that male and female, man and wife, are ever 
indissolubly united as the sources of reproduction — 
are reached. These three gods are the first and highest 
manifestations of the Eternal Essence, and are typi- 
fied by the three letters composing the mystic syllable 
OM or A UM. They constitute the well-known Tri- 
murti or Triad of divine forms which characterizes 
Hinduism. 

It is usual to describe these three gods as Creator, 
Preserver, and Destroyer, but this gives a very in- 
adequate idea of their complex characters. Nor does 
the conception of their relationship to each other 
become clearer when it is ascertained that their func- 
tions are constantly interchangeable, and that each 
may take the place of the other, according to the 
sentiment expressed by the greatest of Indian poets, 
Kalidasa (Kumara-sambhava, Griffith, vii. 44) : — 

In those three Persons the one God was shown — 
Each first in place, each last — not one alone ; 
Of S'iva, Vishnu, Brahma, each may be 
First, second, third among the blessed Three.' 

Nor does the doctrine of Tri-murti derive much 



^ There is a well-known Tri-murti sculptured out of the rock 
in the caves of Elephanta, at Bombay. Three majestic heads 
are represented springing out of one body. The triangle ( Tri. 
kona) is used by the Hindus to symbolize this triune coequality. 



88 HINDUISM. 

elucidation from the mystical explanation given of it 
by Indian philosophers, who assert that the Eternal, 
self-existent" Spirit willed to invest himself with the 
three Gzmas, or binding qualities of matter ; to wit, 
with that of activity {rajas) in order to become a male 
person, Brahma (nom. case, masc.) the Creator,— with 
that of goodness {sattva), to become Vis/iT^u, the Per- 
vader, Maintainer, and Preserver of the universe when 
created, — with that of darkness {tamas), to become 
Rudra, the Destroyer of the same universe when dis- 
solved;^ these three divine personages being themselves 
subject to the universal law of dissolution at the end 
of a Kalpa or aeon of time, when they all three again 
become simple Soul {Kevaldtmaii). 

In real fact the idea of a Tri-murti or triple personi- 
fication was developed gradually, and as it grew, 
received numerous accretions. It was first dimly 
shadowed forth and vaguely expressed in the Rig-veda, 
where, as we have seen a triad of principal gods, 
Agni, Indra, and Surya (see p. 24), is recognized, 
Indra being often identified or associated with Vayu, 
and with Rudra, and with the Maruts or storm-gods. 

Besides these, a god Vishnu is sometimes named 
in the Veda, as a manifestation of the solar energy; 
and the point which distinguishes him from the 
others is his striding over the seven worlds in three 
paces (see p. loi). 



* As Vishnu appears to be connected with tiie day, sun, and 
light, so S'iva in some of his attributes seems to be associated 
with the close of day, the moon, and darkness. See the ac- 
count of the three Gunas under the description of the Sankhya 
philosophy in the Appendix at the end of this volume (p. 194). 



HINDUISM. 89 

Subsequently he takes a foremost place among 
the twelve AdityaSj or distinct forms of the sun in the 
twelve months of the year (see p. 23). In the 
Brahmanas he is identified with sacrifice ( Yajnd), 
and once described as a dwarf (Vamana ; ^atapatha- 
brahmana xiv. i. i, 6, i. 2, 55). 

In Manu's law-book, on the other hand, which 
stands at the head of Smriti (see p. 14), there is 
nothing to support the theory of a triad of personal 
deities ; although Brahman, the universal Soul, is 
represented as unfolding his essence in the form of 
Brahma, the creator of all things ; and other visible 
manifestations of the Deity are recognized as in the 
Veda. Vishnu and Hara (= ^iva) are certainly 
mentioned once (xii. 121), but only as present in the 
human body, the former imparting movement to its 
muscles, the latter bestowing strength. 

Probably the second phase of the doctrine ot 
triple manifestation was about contemporaneous wdth 
the progress of the Buddhistic movement. The 
Vedic Agni, the personification of creative heat, with 
a little extension of his attributes and functions, 
passed into the god Brahma, the creator ; while the 
sun-god, Vishnu, and the storm-god, Rudra, with a 
slight change in their functions but without change 
in their names, became respectively the w^orld- 
upholder and world-dissolver. At first, however, the 
doctrine was not sufficiently developed to satisfy the 
cravings of the human heart for a religion of faith 
and love — of faith in a personal God, and of respon- 
sive love for a God sympathizing with and loving his 
creatures. Nor was there sufficient to meet the 



90 HINDUISM. 

demands of two other constituent parts of man's 
complex nature, — for a religion of worldly activity on 
the one hand, and of austerity and self-suppression on 
the other. 

The idea, therefore, of Brahma the creator was 
soon expanded. He was regarded in other aspects, 
both as a personification of all manifested matter,^ 
and as the Lord and Father of all beings (yPrajdpati). 
In this latter character he is represented in the Veda 
as having sacrificed himself for the good of his crea- 
tures (see p. 36), and it is remarkable that, although 
Brahma is now only worshipped in one principal place ^ 
in India (Pushkara, near Ajmir), yet many places are 
held sacred because supposed to be consecrated by 
sacrifices performed by him after the act of creation. 

But this was not all. He was made to possess a 
double nature, or, in other words, two characters — 
one quiescent, the other active. The active was 
called his ^akti, and was personified as his wife, or 
the female half of his essence. The ^akti of the 
creator ought properly to represent the female 
creative capacity, but the idea of the blending of the 
male and female principles in creation seems to have 
been transferred to ^iva and his Sakti Parvati. Brahma 
with his four faces was then connected with the utter- 
ance of the four Vedas, and the worship which was 
his due was transferred to the Brahmans, regarded as 
his peculiar offspring and, as it were, his mouth-pieces ; 



• To denote the gravity of matter, the Vahana, or vehicle on 
which the god Brahma is supposed to ride, is a Hansa or goose. 

' I was told, when travelling in India, that there is one other 
place (Idur) where homage is paid to Brahma. 



HINDUISM. 91 

while his consort Sarasvati, once a river-goddess, was 
regarded as the goddess of speech and learning, and 
inventress of the Sanskrit language and letters.^ 

Again, the idea of a separate divine person — 
Vishnu — whose functions were those of pervading, 
upholding, and preserving, was also soon expanded, 
and easily spread into numerous ramifications. It 
was from this idea that the doctrine of incarnation, 
to which we shall refer at greater length in the next 
chapter, was ultimately evolved. Moreover, a S'aktt, 
or wife, called Lakshmi, goddess of good fortune, was 
assigned to this second person of the Triad. 

Thirdly. — Inasmuch as destruction necessarily leads 
to re-creation and reproduction, the idea of the god 
Rudra was also easily extended, so that a great 
variety of names, attributes, and functions, properly 
belonging to other deities, were gathered under this 
third person of the Triad. ^ 

• The river Sarasvati was to the earlier Hindias what the 
Ganges was to the later : she was infused with divinity, and 
her influence permeated the writers of the Vedic hymns ; she is 
sometimes identified with the Vedic goddess, Vac, speech, and 
invoked, as the patroness of science. Sarasvatt-pujd is per- 
formed on the S'rT-pancann, the name of a festival kept on the 
fifth of the light half of Magha, on which day books and writing 
implements are held sacred, and not used (see p. 182). 

'^ He has certainly a few more names than Vishnu, one thou- 
sand and eight being specified in the 69th chapter of the 
S'iva-purana, and in the 1 7th chapter of the Anusasana-parvan 
of the Maha-bharata. The latter book, however, also gives a 
thousand names of Vishnu. Of course many of the names of 
S'iva are merely epithets descriptive of his attributes; e.g.., 
Visvesvara^ ' lord of the universe ' ; Tri-locana, * three-eyed ' ; 
Nila-kantha, ' blue-throated,' his neck being blue, through the 
H 



92 HINDUISM. 

He has, at least, three quite distinct characters, each 
of which has a female or active energizing counterpart 
(Sakii). 

In the first place, as Rudra, or Mahakala, he is the 
destroying and dissolving power of nature ; when he 
is either a personification of all matter resolving itself 
into its constituent elements, or of Kala, *Time,' 
the great Dissolver^ ; the more active principle of 
destruction being assigned to his consort Kali. 

Then, in the second place, as S'iva^ Sadd-Hva, 
S^ankara, S'amhhu — the eternally blessed one, or 
causer of blessings — he is the eternal reproductive 
power of nature, perpetually restoring and reproducing 
itself after dissolution, under which mysterious cha- 
racter he is often identified with the eternal creative 
essence^ and even with the great eternal Supreme 
Being, as the one great God {Mahd-deva) and supreme 
Lord {Isvardf. Hence in this character he is 
rather represented by a symbol (the Imga and yoni 
combined^) than by any human personification ; and 

stain of the poison produced at the churning of the ocean, and 
swallowed by him ; Kapdlin, * wearing skulls ' ; Candra- 
iekhara, * moon-crested ' ; Girtia, 'lord of the hills'; Gangd- 
dhara, 'supporter of the Ganges,' which was supposed to issue 
from Vishnu's foot on the matted locks of Siva, who thus broke 
its fall before it descended on the Himalaya. 

^ At the caves of Ellora, which I have lately visited, his form 
is wonderfully carved to represent the skeleton figure of Death. 

' Sometimes S'iva is said to manifest himself under eight 
forms— ether, air, fire, water, earth, the sun, the moon, and the 
sacrificing priest. 

^ When the word Isvara occurs at the end of a compound, it 
generally denotes S'iva. 

^ Probably reproductive energy is denoted by his vehicle or 
companion the bull. 



HINDUISM. 93 

temples to hold this symbol, which is of a double 
form to express the blending of the male and female 
principles in creation, are probably the most numerous 
of any temples now to be seen in India. There 
can be no doubt, in fact, that the supreme creative 
power is still universally worshipped throughout India, 
under the name of ^iva, a.nd of his mie,Jagan-mdfn', 
mother of the world, instead of Brahma and Saras- 
vati; if, indeed, it be not probable that the first 
person of the Triad is really the great god, whose 
functions are implied by the lin^-a and yom, though 
his name has been changed and his office and cha- 
racter mixed up with those of the third person. 

Then, in the third place, this third member of the 
Tri-murti is the gre^t representative Yogi and Tapasvi, 
who has attained the highest perfection in medita- 
tion and austerity, and is thence called Mahdyogz. In 
this character he appears as an austere naked ascetic 
{Dig-amba7'a), with body covered with ashes and 
matted hair {pjiurjati), abiding fixed and immovable 
(sthdnu) in one spot, teaching men by his own 
example the power to be acquired by mortification 
of the body, suppression of the passions, and abstract 
contemplation, as leading to the loftiest spiritual 
knowledge, and ultimately to union with the great 
spirit of the universe. 

This third character of the third person of the 
Triad seems to have been a later invention of the 
Brahmans to take the place of the Buddha^ the 

' I noticed in more than one place, while travelling in India, 
that idols which were once evidently images of Buddha, now do 
duty as images of S'iva. 

H 2 



'94 HINDUISM. 

memory of whose personal example as a self-denying 
ascetic they sought thus to neutralize. In this 
character of the representative ascetic, as in that of 
the Reproducer, he is also sometimes called the 
* Blessed one ' (^iva). 

There are yet two other characters of the third 
person of the Triad, which seem to have been as- 
signed to him by the Brahmans to satisfy the religious 
instincts of the aboriginal tribes, and serve as substi- 
tutes for their wild demoniacal gods. In the first of 
these, which is a modification and adaptation derived 
from his first character of dissolver of the universe, 
he is the terrible destroyer {Bhairava) delighting in 
destruction for its own sake, though it should be 
•noted that this malignant character is more connected 
with his wife Kali, than with himself. In this 
character he is also called Bhutesvara, * lord of spirits 
or demons,' and is depicted as haunting cemeteries 
and burning-grounds wearing serpents for garlands, 
and a string of skulls for a necklace,^ sometimes 
surrounded with troops {gajid) of imps and spirits 
ibhuta), and sometimes trampling on rebellious demons 
who have acquired too great power. 

His fifth character is the entire reverse of ascetical 
In this he is a sort of representative free-liver, a wild 
jovial god, fond of dancing and drink, living in the 



• Sometimes he has a tiger's skin, and he is often associated 
with a tiger, as his wife Durga is borne on that animal. 
Sometimes he has an elephant's skin on his shoulders, which 
once belonged to a demon said to have been killed by him. 
He is also associated with an antelope, and sometimes canies 
a kind of drum called damaru, and a staff with a skull at the 
top called Khatvanga. 



HINDUISM. 95 

Himalaya mountains with his wife, often dancing with 
her the Tandava dance, and surrounded with dwarf- 
ish, buffoon-Hke troops {gat^d) of attendants, who, Hke 
their master, are excited by drinking. This is the 
character in which he is worshipped by Tantrikas. 

And here we may observe that in every one of his 
characters the consort of ^iva is not only his counter- 
part, but generally represents an intensification of his 
attributes. 

As destructress she is Kail, as reproducer she is 
symbolized by the Yoni^ or she is the type of beauty 
in Umd, or she is the mother of the universe in 
[agan-mdtri. She has also her forms as a female 
ascetic (yogim), as a malignant teing delighting in 
blood {Bhairam Durgd), and as a mountaineer 
{Pdrvatl). 

We have thus made good our assertion that the 
third member of the Tri-murti, and his consort do, in 
fact, represent the gathering together, and unifying in 
one personality numerous attributes, properties, and 
functions belonging to various deities and various 
divine forces. 

The destructive energies of the atmosphere exhi- 
bited in wand and storm, and personified in the Veda 
as Vayu, Rudra, and the Maruts ; the all-consuming 
potency of time ; the fertilizing properties present in 
dew and rain ; the almighty agencies operating in 
creation once personified as Brahma; the same agencies 
operating in re-creation and reproduction ; the power of 
asceticism once exhibited in the Buddha ; the grace 
of perfect beauty supposed to be specially present in 
Sri or Lakshmi ; the mysterious efficacy of magic and 
illusion {nidyd) ; the terrific agencies and operations 



96 HINDUISM. 

of demons and spirits, and finally the all-pervading 
influence of the impersonal soul of the universe — all 
these have been collected and centralized in one 
god, whose chief name is the * Blessed one ' (S'iva), 
whose person is supposed to be half male and half 
female, and whose triple eye and trident probably 
symbolize his combining the attributes of the Triad 
in himself.^ 



' These may denote his triple character of Destroyer, Re- 
producer, and Contemplative Ascetic, as the five faces with 
which he is sometimes represented may denote his fivefold 
character. Or may these five faces be connected with the five 
Samhitas of the Veda ? Some think his three eyes refer to time, 
present, past, and future, the crescent moon on his head also 
symbolizing his power over the measurement of time. 



HINDUISM. 97 



CHAPTER VIII. 

DEVELOPMENT OF SAIVISM, VAISHNAVISM AND THE 
DOCTRINE OF INCARNATION. 

A WORSHIPPER of the god Siva, as described in the 
last chapter is called a Saiva, and the preference given 
to the worship of this god may, for convenience, be 
called ^aivism. On the other hand, a worshipper of 
Vishnu is called a Vaishnava, and the preference given 
to the adoration of any of the forms of Vishnu may 
conveniently be called Vaishnavism. 

It is scarcely too much to say that the creeds indi- 
cated by these two terms Saivism and Vaishnavism (see 
pp. II, 12) constitute the very life and soul of modern 
Hinduism. Moreover, it should be clearly under- 
stood that Saivism and Vaishnavism are not opposite 
or incompatible creeds. They represent different 
lines of religious thought, like the differences which 
prevail in Europe ; such lines bemg quite allowable 
within the limits of one and the same system, ^aivas 
and Vaishnavas do in fact acquiesce to a certain 
extent in each other's views, but each lays an exagge- 
rated stress on particular doctrines (see pp. 11, 12); 
and these differences eventually led to a temporary 
antagonism. Even in the present day, when universal 
toleration is the rule, Saivas and Vaishnavas like to 
maintain their distinct characteristics, which they 
exhibit conspicuously to the eye by the sectarian mark 



98 HINDUISM. 

on their foreheads, made with red, yellow, and white 
pigments ; the mark of the Vaishnavas being two per- 
pendicular strokes meeting below in a curve, which 
denote the footprint of Vishnu, while that of the 
^aivas consists of three horizontal lines, made with 
white or grey ashes {vibhuti). The Vaishnava mark 
is called Urdhva-ptindra, the 6aiva is called Tri- 
pundra. 

Although the worship of ^iva is prevalent every- 
where throughout India, no temples being so common 
as those which enshrine his symbol (the Imgam), and 
although all classes of the Hindus, and especially the 
^aktas, or worshippers of the female principle {S'akti), 
pay him the highest respect as husband of the goddess, 
variously called Kali, Durga, Jagad-dhatri, Matri, (S:c., 
yet those who select the male god Siva as their chosen 
divinity — that is to say, the divinity in whose matitra 
they are initiated, and to whom they look for special 
aid in the attainment of salvation — are comparatively 
insignificant in number.^ They are chiefly religious 
mendicants; Yogis, Gosains, or Gosavins, Sannyasis, 
or, as they are often improperly called. Fakirs. 

In fact, the third member of the Tri-murti, whether 
as Destroyer, or as Reproducer and Creator, or as 
chief of ascetics, is too impersonal and too severe a 
god for the multitude. He occupies too lofty a posi- 
tion above ordinary mortals. He is a stern divinity. 



' Dr. Rajendralala Mitra, in his ' Antiquities of Orissa ' (p. 
137-138), says that it is the office of the Guru to initiate a 
disciple in the secret Mantra of the particular god he elects for 
his salvation, and that there is scarcely one in a hundred Gums 
whose vocation is to impart the Mantj-a of S'iva. 



HINDUISM. 



99 



to be approached with awe, and propitiated with reve- 
rence and fear, rather than with faith, trust, and love. 
This will be clear from the description in the pre- 
ceding chapter. It is also shown by the sort of worship 
performed at his shrines. 

In all the temples of Vishnu, Krishna, and Rama 
the chief daily ceremony, after washing and dress- 
ing the idol, and burning lights and incense be- 
fore it, consists in offering it food of some kind, — 
boiled rice, grain cooked and uncooked, sweetmeats, 
fruit, &c., on the essence of which the deity is sup- 
posed to feed, as if he were in need of nourishment 
like a human being, while the remains (called prasdda 
or mahd-prasadd) are consumed by his worshippers. 
Moreover, the idols of these gods are constantly deco- 
rated with flowers and costly ornaments, especially on 
festive occasions. But in the case of Siva, who, in 
one of his characters, is the chief of ascetics, no food 
is generally offered (except, perhaps at some centres 
of worship, such as those of Benares and Bhuvane^- 
vara). The daily ceremonials are of an austerely 
simple kind. Water from a sacred river is poured 
on his symbol, with perhaps a few oblations of flowers, 
but often there is nothing presented by worship- 
pers but the Vilva leaf;i and it is remarkable that 
even in cases when food is offered to this divinity it 
is not allowed to be eaten by his votaries, according 
to the Brahmanical rule, " leaves, flowers, fruit, and 



' The leaf of the Vilva or Bel tree is typical of S'iva's attri- 
Dutes, because triple in form. This plant is also said to be 
pervaded by the presence of his wife Durga. 



100 HINDUISM. 

water become unfit to be consumed after being con- 
secrated to Siva." 1 

It is clear, therefore, that a more personal, and so 
to speak, human god than 6iva was needed for the 
mass of the people, — a god who could satisfy the yearn- 
ings of the human heart for a religion of faith {bhakti) 
— a god who could sympathize with and condescend 
to human wants and necessities. Such a god was 
found in the second member of the Tri-murti. It 
was as Vishnu that the Supreme Being was supposed 
to exhibit his sympathy with human trials, and his 
love for the human race. 

If Siva is the great god {Mahd-deva) of the Hindu 
Pantheon to whom adoration is due from all indis- 
criminately, Vishnu is certainly its most popular deity. 
He is the god selected by far the greater number of 
individuals as their saviour, protector, and friend, who 
rescues them from the power of evil, interests himself 
in their welfare, and finally admits them to his heaven 
( Vaikuf^thd). But it is not so much Vishnu in his 
own person as Vishnu in his i?icamations, that effects 
all this for his votaries. 

Hinduism is like a drama in which the plot is clearly 
traceable, but in which the acts are numerous, and in 
which each succeeding act is more diversified and 
sensational than that which precedes. In the act 
which has now opened upon us, the scenes are con- 
tinually shifting. We have, in fact, arrived at that 
phase of Hinduism when the doctrine of Tri-murti is 
almost lost sight of in the prominence given to the 



Ag}-ahyam S iva-iiaivedyam pattram piishpam phalam jalanu 



HINDUISM. lOI 

various incarnations of the second member of the 
Triad. 

It is probable that the primary idea of a god Vishnu 
(from root vish or vis, to ' pervade '), permeating and 
infusing his essence into material objects, might have 
been connected with the personification of the infinite 
heavenly space, just as the idea of the god Brahma 
was with that of actual manifested matter. 

In the Rig-veda, as we have seen, Vishnu is pro- 
bably a form of the sun or penetrating solar ray, and 
in a well-known hymn (i. 22, 16), still commonly used 
by the Brahmans;^ he is described as striding through 
the seven regions of the universe - in three steps, and 
enveloping all things with the dust (of his beams). 

When the doctrine of the Tri-murti became fully 
established and Vishnu had taken his place as the 
second member of the Triad (see p. 91), he was 
often, like Siva, identified by his worshippers with 
the self-existent all-pervading Spirit, and under this 
aspect seems to have been associated with the watery 
element diffusing itself everywhere before the creation 
of the world. 

In Manu (i. 10) the Supreme Spirit is called 
Narayana, as moving on the waters ; in harmony with 
which idea Vishnu is often represented in sculptures, 

* According to Dr. Rajondralala Mitra, it is the holiest Mantra 
still recited at S'raddhas and marriage rites. 

' There are seven lower regions, viz. , Atala, Vitala, Sutala, 
Rasdtala, Taldtala, Mahdtala and Pdtdla; above which are the 
seven Lokas or worlds, called Bhiir (the earth), Bhuvar, Svar, 
Mahar, jfanar, Tapar^ and Brahma, or Satya. Sometimes the 
first three of these, the earth (Bhu), atmosphere (Bhuvar), and 
heavens (Svar), are supposed to comprehend all the worlds. 



102 HINDUISM. 

images, and pictures as Narayana in human form, 
reposing on the thousand-headed serpent Sesha, and 
floating on the waters.^ 

But whether Vishnu be connected with h'ght, with 
heat, or with water, it is evident that the idea conveyed 
is that of a divine Pervader, infusing his essence for 
special functions into created things, animate and in- 
animate ; for example, into rivers, such as the Ganges ; 
into trees and plants, such as the Tulsi ; into animals, 
such as a fish, a tortoise, a boar ; and lastly into men. 

Probably the definite shape given by the Brahmans 
to the doctrine of human incarnation, was due to their 
perception of the fact that the success of Buddhism 
was in great part due to the reverence the Buddha 
inspired by his own personal character. He practised 
honestly what he preached enthusiastically. He was 
sincere, energetic, earnest, self-sacrificing, and devoted. 
Adherents gathered in thousands round the person of 
the consistent preacher, and the Buddha himself 
became the real centre of Buddhism. When he died, 
he ceased to exist. He became, according to his own 
doctrine, utterly annihilated ; but the remains of his 
burnt body were enshrined as relics in various parts 
of India, and his memory was worshipped almost as 
earnestly as his person had been revered. The mere 
memory of a great man, however, cannot retain its 
hold on the affections of a people through many 
generations. The Brahmans saw this. They knew 
that the religious cravings of the great mass of the 

• A lotus, on which is seated Brahma, the Creator, is repre- 
sented as issuing from the navel of the god, while the goddess 
lakshml, Vishnu's wife, chafes her husband's feet. 



HINDUISM. 103 

Hindus could not long be satisfied with the worship 
of relics, or with homage paid to a being held to be 
extinct. In all probability, soon after the death of 
Buddha (about the 4th century B.C.), they elaborated 
their scheme for supplying the people with real 
objects of faith and adoration out of their own epic 
poems, the Ramayana and Maha-bharata. The 
great Kshatriya dynasties were made to trace back 
their origin through Brahmanical sages to the Sun-god 
and the Moon-god,^ while the great heroes, Rama 
and Krishna, were declared to be not really Kshatriyas 
or even human beings, but incarnations of the god 
Vishnu. 

And here be it noted that the idea of incarnation, 
like every other idea in religion, morality, and science, 
when manipulated by the Brahmans, was by them 
subtilized, distorted, and exaggerated. Hence the 
incarnations (Avatdra) of Vishnu which were under- 
taken reasonably enough for preserving the world 
when in pressing emergencies, especially when in 
danger of ruin from some undue acquisition of power 
on the part of evil demons, are said to be of five 
kinds and degrees. 

1st, the full human incarnation, as that of KrishT^a ; 
2ndlyy the partial human incarnation, consisting 
of half the god's essence, as in the Rd^tm of the 
Ramayana, commonly called Rama-candra; z^dfy, 
the quarter incarnation, as in Rama's brother Bharaia, 

^ As Vishnu is connected \vith Siirya, the Sun, so S'iva is 
connected with Soma, the Moon, who is a male deity in Hindu 
mythology. One name for the god S'iva is moon-crested 
(see pp. 92, 96). 



I04 HINDUISM. 

dtthly, the incarnation consisting of an eighth of 
the god's essence, as in Rama's two other brothers, 
Lakshmana and ^atrughna ; and 5^/^, the infusion of 
divine virtues or qualities into ordinary men, animals, 
and inanimate objects.^ 

Vishnu's ten principal incarnations - may be briefly 
described as follows : 

I. Matsya, * the fish.* In this, Vishnu became a fish to save 
Manu, the progenitor of the human race, from the universal 
deluge. This Manu was not the grandson of Brahma and reputed 
author of the law-book, but the seventh Manu, or Manu of the 
present period, called Vaivasvata. He is represented as con- 
ciliating the favour of the Supreme Being by his austerities in 
an age of universal depravity. Hence, like Noah, he was 
miraculously warned of the coming deluge, and was commanded 
to build a ship and go on board with the seven Rlshis, or 
patriarchs, and the seeds of all existing things. The flood 
came, Manu went on board, and Vishnu took the form of a 
fish with a horn on its head, to which the ship was fastened by 
a cable. The ship was then drawn along by the fish and secured 
to a high crag till the flood had passed. 

Another account of this incarnation makes Vishnu, after 
rescuing Manu, destroy a demon named Hayagriva, who, while 
Brahma was asleep at the end of a Kalpa, stole the Vedas, and 



' Often in modern times, men whose lives have been 
made remarkable by any peculiar circumstances, have been 
canonized after death, and held to be partial incarnations of the 
deity. Again, not only are many animals and different kinds 
of stones held to be permeated by the divine presence at all 
times, but there were special occasions on which Vishnu took 
the form of animals to rescue the world in great emergencies, 
as in the first three Avataras enumerated above. 

''The Bhagavata-purana gives twenty-two incarnations of 
Vishnu. 



HINDUISM. 



105 



thereby caused mankind to fall into the depths of ignorance and 
impiety. 

A third account in the Vana-parvan of the Mahabharata (line 
12,746), makes the fish an incarnation of the god Brahma. 

2. Kiirma, 'the tortoise.' In this he descended to aid in 
recovering and producing certain valuable articles, some of 
which were supposed to have been lost during the deluge. For 
this purpose he stationed himself as a tortoise at the bottom of 
the sea of milk,' that his back might serve as a pivot for the 
mountain Mandara, around which the gods and demons twisted 
the great serpent Vasuki. They then stood opposite to each 
other, and using the snake as a rope and the mountain as a 
churning-stick, churned the ocean of milk for the production of 
fourteen precious and typical things. i. The AmritCy or 
nectar conferring immortality. 2. Dhanvantari, the phy- 
sician of the gods, holder of the cup oi Amrita. 3. Lakshnil 
or S'ri, goddess of good fortune and beauty. 4. Surd, goddess 
of wine. 5. C'andra, the moon. 6. Rambhd, a nymph, proto- 
type of a lovely, amiable woman. 7. lfccaih-§ravas, a won- 
derful horse, prototype of the race of horses. 8. Kaustubha, a 
wonderful jewel. 9. Pdrijdta, a tree yielding all desires. 10. 
Sicrabhi, the cow of plenty. 11. Airdvata, a wonderful 
elephant, prototype of the elephant race. 12, Sankha, a shell, 
supposed, when blown as a horn, to insure victory. 13. Dhaniis, 
an unerring bow. 14. Visha, poison. 

3. Vardha, 'the boar.' In this form (symbolical of strength), 
Vishnu descended to deliver the world from the power of a 
demon called Hiranyaksha, who had seized the earth and 
carried it down into the lowest depths of the sea. Vishnu, as a 
boar, dived into the abyss, and after a contest of a thousand 
years, slew the monster and raised the earth. In earlier legends 
the universe is represented as a mass of water, and the earth, 
being submerged, was upheaved by the tusks of the divine 
boar. 



* This is one of the seven concentric circular seas surrounding 
the seven concentric circular continents of the earth (see * Indian 
Wisdom,' p. 419). 



Io6 HINDUISM. 

It is remarkable that the first three incarnations are all con- 
nected with the tradition of a universal deluge. 

4. Nara-sinha, 'the man-lion,' In this, Vishnu assumed the 
shape of a creature, half man, half lion, to deliver the world 
from the tyranny of a demon called Hiranya-kasipu, who had 
obtained a boon from Brahma that he should not be slain by 
either god or man or animal. Hence he became so powerful 
that he usurped the dominion of the three worlds, and appro- 
priated the sacrifices made to the gods. When his pious son 
Prahlada praised Vishnu, the demon tried to destroy the boy, 
but Vishnu appeared out of a pillar in the form Nara-sinha and 
tore Hiranya-kasipu to pieces. 

These four first incarnations are said to have taken place in 
the Satya or first age of the four ages of the world. 

5. Vdmana, ' the dwarf. ' In the second or Treta age, Vishnu 
descended as a dwarf to deprive the demon Bali (who resembles 
Ravana and Kansa in the stories of Rama and Krishna) of the 
dominion of the three worlds. Vishnu presented himself before 
him as a diminutive man, and solicited as much land as he 
could step in three paces. When his request was granted, he 
strode in two steps over heaven and earth, but out of com- 
passion left the lower world, Patala (see p. loi, note 2) in the 
demon's possession. 

6. Parahi-fdma, 'Rama with the axe.' In this, Vishnu was 
born, as the son of the Brahman Jamad-agni and descendant of 
Bhrig^, in the second age, to prevent the Kshatriyas from arro- 
gating dominion over the Brahmanical caste. Parasu-rama is 
said to have cleared the earth twenty-one times of the whole 
Kshatriya class. 

7. Rama (commonly called Rama-candra, * the mild or moon- 
like Rama '), the hero of the Ramayana, son of King Dasaratha 
of the Solar race, and therefore a Kshatriya. Vishnu took this 
form at the close of the second or Treta age, to destroy the 
demon Ravana (see p. no). 

8. Krishna^ ' the dark god,' the most popular of all the later 
deities of India. This incarnation of Vishnu at the end of the 
Dvapara or third age of the world, as the eighth son of Vasu- 
deva and Devakl, of the Lunar race, was for the destruction of 



HINDUISM. 107 

the tyi'ant Kansa, the representative of the principle of evil, 
corresponding to Ravana in the previous incarnation. 

The details of the later life of Krishna have been interwoven 
with the later portions of the Maha-bharata, but they do not 
belong to the plot, and they might be omitted without impairing 
its unity. He is certainly not the hero of the great epic. He 
appears as a great chief who takes the part of the real heroes — 
the Pandavas — and his claims to deification are often disputed. 
His earlier days and juvenile feats, though not found in the 
oldest parts of the Maha-bharata, may be gathered from the 
Hari-vansa and Puranas, especially the tenth book of the Bha- 
gavata-purana, from which we learn as follows : — 

Vasu-deva (a descendant of the Yadu who, with Puru, as sons 
of Yayati, formed the two branches of the Lunar dynasty) had 
two wives, RohinI and Devakl. The latter had eight sons, of 
whom the eighth was Krishna. It was predicted that one of 
.^ese Avould kill Kansa, king of Mathura, and cousin of Devakl. 
1 le therefore imprisoned Vasu-deva and his wife, and slew their 
first six children. The seventh, Bala-rama, was abstracted 
from Devaki's womb, transferred to that of RohinI, and thus 
saved. The eighth was Krishna, born with black skin, and the 
mark called S'li vatsa on his breast.^ His father, Vasu-deva, 
escaped from Mathura with the child, and, favoured by the 
gods, found a certain herdsman named Nanda, whose wife, 
Yasoda, had just given birth to a daughter whom Vasudeva 
conveyed to Devakl, after substituting his own son in its 
place. Nanda took the infant Krishna and settled first in 
Gokula or Vraja, and afterwards in Vrindavana, where Krishna 
and Bala-rama grew up together, roaming in the woods, and 
joining in the sports of the herdsman's sons. While still a boy, 
Krishna destroyed the serpent Kaliya, and lifted up the moun- 
tain Govardhana on his finger to shelter the Gopis from the wrath 
of Indra, who, enraged because Krishna had instigated them 
to the worship of Govardhana, tried to destroy them by a deluge. 
He is described as sporting constantly with these GopIs, the wives 

' The date of his birth is kept as a great festival by the 
Hindus, and called Janindshtaml (see the chapter on the 
festivals, p. 183). 



Io8 HINDUISM. 

and daughters of the cowherds, of whom eight were his favourites, 
especially Radha, Krishna built Dvaraka in Gujarat, and 
thither transported the inhabitants of Mathura after killing Kansa. 
According to some, Krishna is not an incarnation of Vishnu, 
but Vishnu himself ; in which case Bala-rama, * the strong 
Rama,' born at the end of the Dvapara or third age of the 
world, as son of Vasu-deva and Devaki, and elder brother of 
Krishna, is sometimes substituted for Krishna, as the eighth 
incarnation of Vishnu. 

9. Buddha. The adoption of Buddha as an incarnation of 
Vishnu was really owing to the desire of the Brahmans to effect 
a compromise with Buddhism (see p. 82). The reason some 
give for this incarnation is that Vishnu assumed the form of the 
great sceptical philosopher, in the fourth age of the world, that 
he might delude Daityas, demons, and wicked men, and lead 
them to bring destruction on themselves by despising the Veda, 
and neglecting caste-duties and denying the existence of the 
gods. But the simple fact was that the Brahmans adopted 
Buddha as some of them are now adopting Christ, and making 
Him out to be an incarnation of Vishnu. 

10. Kalki or Kalkin, who is yet to appear at the close of the 
fourth or Kali age (when the world has become wholly de- 
praved) for the final destruction of the wicked, for the re- 
establishment of righteousness upon the earth, the renovation 
of all creation, and the restoration of a new age of purity {satya- 
yugd) . According to some, he will be revealed in the sky, seated 
on a white horse, with a drawn sword blazing like a comet. 
From the fact of the horse playing an important role in this 
incarnation, it is sometimes called Ahtdvatdra. Some of the 
degraded classes of India comfort themselves in their present 
abject condition by looking to Kalki as their future deliverer 
and the restorer of their social position. 

Before concluding the subject of incarnation, we 
may observe that Vishnu is the only member of the 
Tri-murti who can be said to have infused his essence 
into actual flesh and blood for the salvation of the 



HINDUISM. 109 

world in ti-mes of peril and calamity. Sometimes 
there are allusions in the epic poems and Puranas to 
Avataras of Brahma and Siva, but these are generally 
not so much incarnations undergone for the love of 
human beings, as various forms or manifestations of 
one or the other of these deities, especially of Siva. 

For example, there is a form of Siva (sometimes 
described as his incarnation, sometimes as his son) 
called Virabhadra. He is said to have been created 
from Siva's mouth, to take vengeance on the sage 
Daksha, who had omitted to invite Siva and his wife 
to a great sacrifice, at which all the other gods were 
present. He is depicted as fierce and terrific, with a 
thousand heads, eyes, feet, and clubs. There are also 
eight Bhairavas, all terrific forms of Siva, and some- 
times called his incarnations. Again, there are eleven 
Rudras, regarded as manifestations of his destroying 
nature, and certain beings called Vatukas, which are 
his youthful or child-manifestations. Finally, in his 
female counterpart Durga, he is supposed to have 
assumed an innumerable variety of different forms for 
the destruction of demons, and the support of the 
world. These, however, more properly belong to 
another phase of Hinduism described in the next 
chapter. 

Since the two great epic poems, the Ramayana and 
the Alaha-bharata, were the sources whence the doc- 
trine of incarnation was first evolved by the Brahmans, 
and since the latter is especially important as furnish- 
ing the greater part of the matter of the subsequent 
Puranas, it mil be well to conclude this chapter with 
a brief summary of their contents. 



no HINDUISM. 

The approximate pre-Brahmanical and pre-Bud- 
dhistic versions of the two poems may be fixed at 
about 500 B.C., and their first orderly completion in 
their Brahmanized form may possibly have taken 
place in the case of the Ramayana, about the end 
of the 4th or beginning of the 3rd century B.C., and 
in the case of the Maha-bharata still later. 

The Ramayana (that is jRd?Ha-ayana, the goings 
of Rama, the 7 th incarnation of Vishnu for the de- 
struction of the demon Ravana), held most sacred, 
and equally revered by Vaishnavas and Saivas, is 
believed to be a poem {kdvya)^ by a human yet in- 
spired author, Valmiki. It consists of about twenty- 
four thousand stanzas, arranged in seven books, which 
narrate the story of Rama-candra, whose name is a 
household word throughout all India, as follow : — 

The first of these (called Bdla-kdnda) describes the boyhood 
of Rama. Dasaratha, king of Ayodhya, of the Solar dynasty, 
had no son, a serious calamity in India. A horse-sacrifice, 
therefore, was performed to propitiate the gods. Four sons 
were then born from the three wives of Dasaratha ; the eldest, 
Rama, possessing half the nature of Vishnu, from Kausalya ; 
the second, Bharata, possessing a fourth part, from Kaikeyi ; 
and the other two, Lakshmana and S'atru-ghna, sharing the 
remaining quarter between them, from Sumitra. While yet a 
stripling, Rama was taken to the court of Janaka, king of 
Mithila or Videha. He had a wonderful bow, and had given 
out, that the man who could bend it should win his beautiful 
daughter Sita. Rama bent the bow, and SIta thus became his 
wife ; and she remained his one wife — the type of wife-like 
devotion. The second (called Ayodhyd-kdnda) describes the 
transactions in Ayodhya and the banishment of Rama by his 
father, king Dasaratha, through the jealousy of Kaikeyi, who 
wished her own son to become the heir-apparent. The third 
(called Aranya-kdnda) narrates the events in the forest abode of 



HINDUISM. Ill 

Rama after his banishment, including the carrying oflF of Sita 
by the demon Ravana, king of Ceylon. The fourth (called 
Kishkindhyd-kdnda) details the occurrences at Kishkindhya, 
the capital city of Sugriva, the monkey-king who was Rama's 
ally in his expedition against Ceylon for the recovery of Sita. 
The fifth (called Sundara-kdnda^ * the beautiful section ') gives 
an account of the miracles by which the passage of the straits 
and the arrival of the invading armies in Lanka (Ceylon) were 
effected. The sixth (called Yuddha-kdnda) describes the actual 
war with Ravana in Lanka, the victory over his armies and 
his destruction by Rama, the recovery of Sita, the return to 
Ayodhya, the reunion of the four brothers, and final coronation 
of Rama. The seventh (called Uttara-kdnda) recounts the 
concluding events of the history of Rama after his coronation on 
returning to Ayodhya — his sensitiveness to the gossip and scandal 
of the citizens, his consequent banishment of Sita to the hermit- 
age of Valmiki, notwithstanding the absolute certainty of her 
blameless conduct during her captivity in Ravana's palace ; the 
birth of his twin sons, Kusa and Lava, in the hermitage ; his 
final reunion with her and translation to heaven. All this 
supplement to the story has been dramatized by Bhava-bhuti in 
his Uttara-rama-caritra, and the whole previous history in his 
Maha-vira-caritra. 

Let US now pass to the Maha-bharata, probably by 
far the longest epic poem that the world has ever 
produced. It is called an Itihdsa or ' sacred history/ 
but is really a collection of Itihasas — a vast cyclo« 
psedia or thesaurus of Hindu traditions, legendary 
history, ethics, and philosophy, which afterwards 
became the source of many of the Puranas. It seems 
to have passed through several stages of construction 
and reconstruction, until finally arranged and reduced 
to orderly written shape by a Brahman or Brahmans, 
whose names have been purposely concealed, because 
the work is held to be too sacred to have been com- 



112 HINDUISM. 

posed by any human author, and is therefore attributed 
to the divine sage Vyasa. 

The entire work consists of about 220,000 Hnes, in 
eighteen Parvans or sections, as follow : 

The 1st, called Adi-parvan, describes how the two brothers, 
Dhrita-rashtra and Pandu, of the Lunar dynasty, are brought up 
by their uncle Bhishma, who conducted the government of the 
kingdom of Hastinapura near Delhi, and how Dhrita-rashtra, 
who is blind, has one hundred bad sons —commonly called the 
Kuru princes — by his wife Gandhari ; and how the two wives of 
Pandu — Pritha (or KuntI) and Madrl — have five good sons, called 
the Pandavas or Pandu princes. The eldest, Yudhi-shthira, is 
the Hindu ideal of excellence — a pattern of justice and integrity. 
Bhima, the second, is a type of brute courage and strength. 
Arjuna, the third, rises more to the European standard of per- 
fection. He may be regarded as the real hero of the Maha- 
bharata, of undaunted bravery, yet generous and tender-hearted. 
Nakula and Sahadeva, the fourth and fifth, who are twins, are 
both amiable, noble-minded, and spirited. The eldest of 
Dhrita-rashtra's sons, called Dur-yodhana, is the type of every- 
thing evil. 

II. Sabhd-parvan, describes the great Sabhd or 'assembly of 
princes ' at Hastina-pura, when Yudhi-shthira, the eldest of the 
five Pandavas is persuaded to play at dice with S'akuni, and 
loses his title to the kingdom. The five Pandavas and Draupadl, 
their wife, are required to live for twelve years in the woods. 

III. Vana-pai-van, narrates the life of the Pandavas in the 
Kamyaka forest. This is one of the longest books, and full of 
episodes, such as the story of Nala and that of the Kiratarjumya. 

IV. Virdta-parvan^ describes the thirteenth year of exile, and 
the adventures of the Pandavas who lived for that year disguised 
in the service of King Virata. 

V. Udyoga-parvan, recounts the preparations tor war on the 
side of both Pandavas and Kauravas, the former being de- 
termined to recover their kingdom. Krishna and Bala-rama, 
who were relations of the contending parties, resolve not to 
fight, but Klrishna consented to act as Arjuna's charioteer. 



HINDUISM. 113 

VI. BhTshma-pai-van, describes how both armies join battle on 
Kuru-kshetra, a plain north-west of Delhi. The Kauravas are 
commanded by Bhishma, who falls transfixed with arrows by 
Arjuna, but lingers for some time. 

VII. Drona-parvan, describes how the Kuru forces are com- 
manded by Drona, and how numerous battles take place. 
Drtona falls in a fight with Dhrishta-dyumna (son of Drupada). 

VIII. Karna-pa>van, tells how the Kurus are led by Karna ; 
how other battles occur, in which Arjuna kills Karna. 

IX. Salya-pai-van, relates how S'alya is made general of the 
Kuru army, and how numerous concluding battles take place, 
and only three of the Kuru warriors, with Duryodhana, are left 
alive. Bhima and Duryodhana then fight with clubs, and 
Duryodhana — the chief and eldest of the Kurus — is stinick down. 

X. Sauptika-parvan, describes how the three surviving Kurus 
make a night attack on the camp of the Pandavas, and kill all 
their army, but not the five Pandavas. 

XI. Stri-paruatt, describes the lamentations of Queen 
Gandhari and the other wives and women over the bodies of 
the slain heroes. 

XII. Sdnti-parvan, recounts the coronation of Yudhi-shthira 
in Hastina-pura. To calm his spirit, troubled with the slaughter 
of his kindred, Bhishma, still alive, instructs him at great length 
in the duties of kings, and gives rules for adversity and rules for 
attaining final emancipation. 

XIII. Anu^dsana-pai'jan, continues Bhishma's discourse. 
Precepts and wise advice on all subjects are given ; such as the 
duties of kings, liberality, fasting, eating, &c., mixed up with 
tales, moral and religious discourses, and metaphysical disquisi- 
tions. At the conclusion of his long sermon Bhishma dies. 

XIV. Ah'af?iedhika-pa7'van, tells how Yudhi-shthira, having 
assumed the government, performed an Asva-medha, or ' horse- 
sacrifice, '_in token of his supremacy. 

XV. Airamavdsika-parvan, narrates how the old blind king, 
Dhrita-rashtra, with his queen Gandhari, and with Kunti, 
mother of the Pandavas, retires to a hermitage in the woods. 
After two years a forest conflagration takes place, and they ira- 
molate themselves in the fire to secure heaven and felicity. 



114 HINDUISM. 

XVI. Mausala-parvan, narrates the death of Krishna and 
Balarama, their return to heaven, the submergence of Krishna's 
city, Dvaraka, by the sea, and the self-slaughter in a fight with 
clubs {ffiusahi) of Krishna's family, the Yadavas, through the 
curse of some Brahmans. 

XVII. Mahdprasthdnika-pai-van, describes the renunciation of 
their kingdom by Yudhi-shthira and his four brothers, and 
their departure towards Indra's heaven in Mount Meru. 

'KNlll.Svai-gdrohanika-pan'a7t, narrates the ascent and ad- 
mission to heaven of the five Pandavas, their wife DraupadI, 
and kindred. 

The supplement, or Harivania-parvan, a later addition, 
recounts tlie genealogy and birth of Krishna and the details of 
his early life. 



HINDUISM. 115 



CHAPTER IX. 

THE DOCTRINE OF FAITH {bhakti) AS DEVELOPED IN 
THE PURANAS AND TANTRAS. 

The period of the Epic poems was not marked by 
much rivalry between the worshippers of the three 
members of the Tri-murti. Brahma, Vishnu, and 
^iva were at first regarded as different names for 
the one universal eternal essence, manifesting itself 
variously. Their attributes and functions were con- 
stantly interchanged without any necessary antagonism. 
After a time the doctrine of incarnation received 
definite shape, and the heroes of the Epic poems were 
deified as incarnations of Vishnu. It was not, how- 
ever, till a comparatively recent period that strifes 
and jealousies arose between the followers of Vishnu 
and Siva, and of their incarnations and manifesta- 
tions, each god being identified with the Supreme 
Being by his worshippers. The Puranas were then 
written for the express purpose, as we have seen, of 
exalting one deity or the other to the highest position, 
while other books, called Tantras, were composed to 
give prominence to the worship of the female counter- 
part of Siva. Moreover, the doctrine of hhakti, or 
' salvation by faith,* which existed to a certain extent 
from the earliest times, and which was fully pro- 
pounded in the Bhagavad-gita, a philosophical episode 



Il6 HINDUISM. 

of the Maha-bharata, (see the Appendix p. 206, for a 
full description of this celebrated episode), and reduced 
to a system by a writer called Sandilya in his Bhakti- 
sutras, — became in the Puranas and Tantras exagge- 
rated and perverted. The most complete devotion to 
the personal deities, Krishna and Rama was enjoined 
by the Vaishnavas, while the Saktas claimed the same 
for Durga. Furthermore, an absolute belief in the 
most extravagant miracles, alleged to have been 
worked by these deities, and an unreasoning accept- 
ance of every monstrous detail of their legendary 
history, were insisted on ; while the relationship of 
the human soul to the divine was described in the 
language of human love, and illustrated with images 
and allegories, suggestive of conjugal union, and even 
of sexual and adulterous passion. 

The Puranas and Tantras are the true exponents 
of these two last and most corrupt phases of popular 
Hinduism, on which account both sets of books are 
sometimes called a fifth Veda especially designed for 
the masses of the people and for women. 

In order to invest the former with a sacred character, 
a fictitious antiquity was given to them by naming 
them Purana, ' ancient tradition,' and assigning their 
compilation to the ancient sage Vyasa, the supposed 
arranger of theVedas and Maha-bharata, and founder 
of the Vedanta philosophy. The work called Vayu- 
purana is perhaps one of the oldest of this class of 
writings ; but an earlier date can scarcely be assigned 
to it than the 6th century of our era. 

The Puranas, then, must be carefully distinguished 
from the Itihasas (seep. in). It is true that the 



I 

HINDUISM. 117 

latter furnish the raw material for the composition of 
the Puranas, but, notwithstanding this relationship, 
the two classes of works are very different. The 
Itihasas are the legendary histories of heroic men 
before they were actually deified, whereas the Puranas 
are properly the history of the same heroes converted 
into positive gods, and made to occupy the highest 
position in the Hindu Pantheon. 

Strictly, every Purana is supposed to treat of five 
topics : I. The creation of the universe ; 2. Its 
destruction and re-creation ; 3. The genealogy of 
gods and patriarchs ; 4. The reigns and periods of 
the Manus ; 5. The history of the Solar and Lunar 
races of kings. And on this account the oldest native 
lexicographer gives Panca-laksha7j,a, ' characterized 
by five subjects,' as a synonym of Purana. The fact 
that very few of the Puranas now extant answer to 
this title, and that the abstract given in the Matsya- 
purana of the contents of all the others does not 
always agree with the extant works, either in the sub- 
jects described, or in number of verses enumerated, 
proves that, like the Ramayana and Maha-bharata, 
they were preceded by more ancient works. In the 
Bhagavata-purana, six original collections are specially 
declared to have been taught by Vyasa to six sages, 
his pupils, and these six collections may have formed 
the bases of the present works ; those which relate to 
Brahma being sometimes called Rdjasa Puranas 
(from his own peculiar Guna rajas, see p. 88) , those 
which exalt Vishnu being designated Sdttvika (from 
his Guna sattva) \ and those which prefer Siva being 
styled Tdmasa (from his Guna tamas). 



Il8 HINDUISM. 

The following are the names of the eighteen Puranas 
according to the above three divisions : — 

I. The Rajasa Puranas, or those which relate to Brahma, 
are : i. Brahma, 2. Brahmdnda, 3. Brahma-vaivarta, 4. Mar- 
kandeya, 5. Bhavishya, 6. Vdmana. 

II. The Sattvika Puranas, or those which relate to Vishnu, 
are : i. Vishnu, 2. Bhdgavata, 3. Ndradtya, 4. Garuda, 5. 
Padma, 6. Vdrdha, These six are usually called Vaishnava 
Puranas. 

III. The Tamasa, or those which glorify S'iva, are : i. Siva, 
2. Linga, 3. Skanda, 4. Agni, 5. Matsya, 6. KHrma. These 
six are usually styled S'aiva Puranas. For the ' Agni,' the 
ancient Purana called * Vdyu ' is often substituted. 

Although it is certainly convenient to group the 
eighteen Puranas in these three divisions, in accord- 
ance with the theory of the Tri-murti or triple mani- 
festation, it must not be supposed that the six so- 
called Rajasa Puranas are devoted to the exclusive 
exaltation of Brahma, or the Tamasa to that of Siva, 
The real god of the Puranas may be said to be 
Vishnu, since all the Puranas are more or less con- 
cerned with his various forms and incarnations. 
Moreover, underlying the teaching of all of them 
may be discerned the one grand pantheistic doctrine, 
generally found at the root of Hindu theology — 
whether Vedic or Puranic — the doctrine expressed in 
the formula ekafn eva advitiyam (see p. 11). 

Furthermore, interwoven with the radically pan- 
theistic and Vedantic texture of these compositions, 
tinged as it is with other philosophical ideas (especially 
the Sankhyan doctrine of Prakriti), and diversified as 
it is with endless fanciful mythologies, theogonies, 



HINDUISM. 119 

cosmogonies, and mythical genealogies, we have a 
whole body of erroneous teaching on nearly every 
subject of knowledge. 

Of all the eighteen Puranas, the Markandeya is 
the least sectarian, while the Bhagavata is by far the 
most celebrated. Perhaps the next best known is 
the Vishnu. 

Of the Markandeya, which is one of the oldest — 
probably as old as the 8th century of our era, part is 
in praise of Brahma, and part of Vishnu. A section 
of this Purana, called the Devi-mahatmya or C'andi- 
mahatmya, is repeated at the great autumnal festival 
in honour of Durga (see p. 183). It is devoted to 
the praise of Durga, the chief Devi or goddess (stand- 
ing alone without a husband), and of her victory over 
the demons, especially the buffalo demon Mahishasur. 

The Bhagavata-purana is in twelve sections or books. 

Parikshit, king of Hastina-pura, and grandson of Ar- 
juna,was condemned, in consequence of a curse, to die 
by the bite of a snake in seven days, and therefore went 
to the banks of the Ganges to prepare for death. 
There he was visited by certain sages, among whom 
was Suka, who answered his inquiry as to the best 
way for preparing for death by relating the Bhagavata- 
purana, as he received it from Vyasa. 

Its most important book is the tenth, which narrates 
the early life of Krishna, an abstract of which has 
already been given at p. 107. 

The following story, freely translated and slightly 
amplified from the 89th chapter of this book, affords 
a good example of the view taken by the Bhagavata- 
purana (and, indeed, by most of the Puranas) of the 



I20 HINDUISM. 

comparative excellence of the three members of the 
Tri-murti : — 

A dispute arose among the sages as to which of the three 
gods was greatest ; so they applied to the great Bhrigu, one of 
the ten Maharshis, or primeval patriarchs created by the first 
Manu, to determine the point. He undertook to put all three 
gods to a severe test, and went first to Brahma ; on approaching 
whom he purposely omitted an obeisance. Upon this the god's 
anger blazed terribly forth ; but, restraining it, he was at length 
pacified. Next he repaired to the abode of S'iva, in Kailasa, 
and omitted to return the god's salutation. The vindictive 
deity was enraged, his eyes flashed fire, and he raised his trident 
to destroy the sage ; but the god's wife, ParvatI, fell at his feet, 
and by her intercession appeased him. Lastly, he repaired to 
Vaikuntha, the heaven of Vishnu, whom he found asleep with 
his head on his consort Lakshmi's lap. To make a trial of 
his forbearance, he boldly gave the god a kick on his breast, 
which awoke him. Instead of showing anger, however, 
Vishnu arose, and on seeing Bhrigu, asked his pardon for not 
having greeted him on his first arrival. Next, he expressed 
himself highly honoured by the sage's blow (which he declared 
had imprinted an indelible mark of good fortune on his breast),* 
and then inquired tenderly whether his foot was hurt, and pro- 
ceeded to rub it gently. ' This, ' said Bhrigu, ' is the mightiest 
god ; he overpowers by the most potent of all weapons — gentle- 
ness and generosity.' 

Of all the eighteen Puranas the Vishnu-purana 
conforms most nearly to the epithet panca-laksha\ia. 
The great sage Parasara is supposed to relate it to 
his disciple Maitreya. It is in six books, and is, of 
course, dedicated to the exaltation of Vishnu, whom it 



* This mark is called the S'rivatsa. In some forms of 
Vishnu or Krishna, such as that called Vltho-ba (worshipped at 
Pandharpur) it is represented as a real footmark. 



HINDUISM. 121 

identifies with the Supreme Being. Here is an epi- 
tome of the six books : — 

The first book treats of the creation of the universe ; the 
peopling of the world and the descent of mankind from seven 
or nine patriarchs, sons of Brahma ; the destruction of the 
universe at the end of a Kalpa and its re-creation ; and the 
reigns of kings during the first Manvantara. The second book 
describes the various worlds, heavens, hells, and planetary 
spheres, and gives the formation of the seven circular con- 
tinents and concentric oceans. The third book describes the 
arrangement of the Vedas,Itihasas, and Puranas by Vyasa, and 
the institution and rules of caste, in which it follows and re- 
sembles Manu. The fourth book gives lists of kings and 
dynasties. The fifth book is devoted to the life of Krishna. 
The sixth and last book describes the deterioration of mankind 
during the four ages of the world called Krita, Treid, Dvd- 
para, and Kali ; the destruction of the world by fire and water, 
and its dissolution at the end of a Kalpa or ^on (comprising 
4,320,000,000 years). 

The above is a bare outline of the contents of the 
Vishnu-purana, which is encyclopedical, like the others, 
and is full of wild philosophical speculations and 
curious legends. 

The following account of the Kali, or fourth age of 
the world — the age of universal degeneracy — is from 
book vi. I : — 

Hear what will happen in the Kali age. 
The usages and institutes of caste. 
Of order and of rank, will not prevail. 
Nor yet the precepts of the triple Veda. 
Religion will consist in wasting wealth ; 
In fasting and performing penances 
At will ; the man who owns most property 
And lavishly distributes it, will gain 



122 HINDUISM. 

Dominion over others ; noble rank 

"Will give no claim to lordship ; self-willed women 

Will seek their pleasure, and ambitious men 

Fix all their hopes on riches gained by fraud. 

The women will be fickle and desert 

Their beggared husbands, loving them alone 

^N]\o give them money. Kings instead of guarding 

"Will rob their subjects, and abstract the wealth 

Of merchants, under plea of raising taxes. 

Then in the world's last age the rights of men 

Will be confused, no property be safe. 

No joy and no prosperity be lasting. 

There are eighteen Upa-purdnas, or ' secondary 
Puranas,' subordinate to the eighteen principal 
Puranas, of which the names only need be given, 
as follow : — 

I. Sanatkumdra, 2. Nai-asinha or Nrisinha, 3. Ndradtya 
or Vrihan-ndi-adiya, 4. Siva, 5, Dwz'dsasa, 6. Kapila, 7. 
Mdnava, 8. Aida7tasa, 9. Vdtuna, 10. Kdlikd, 1 1. Sdmba, 12. 
Nandi, 13. Saura, 14. Pdrdiara, 15. Aditya, 16. Mdhesvara, 
17. Bhdgavata (for Bhargava ?), 18. VdHshtha. In another 
list the JVandd, S iva-d/ia7-ma , Brahmdnda and Kdiirma are 
substituted for some of the above. 

Let US now turn to the Tantras, and consider the 
system they inculcate, which for convenience may be 
called Tantrism, or, from the Saktas who follow it, 
^aktism. 

Although some of the Puranas and Upa-puranas, 
such as the Skanda, Brahma-vaivarta, and Kalika, do 
in real truth teach Tantrika doctrines by promoting 
the worship of Prakriti and Durga, yet it is also true 
that the Tantras represent a phase of Hinduism gene- 
rally later than that represented by the Puranas. 



HINDUISM. 123 

Indeed, Tantrism, or Saktism, is Hinduism arrived 
at its last and worst stage of medieval development. 

As the most conspicuous god of the Puranas is 
Vishnu with his incarnations, so the most prominent 
deity of the Tantras is ^iva with his manifestations, 
more especially in the innumerable forms of his 
female counterpart.^ 

We have already noted that the principal Hindu 
deities are supposed to possess a double nature, or 
two characters — one quiescent, the other active, — and 
that the active, called his S'akti, is personified as his 
wife, or as the female half of his essence, represented, 
as we shall see presently, on his left side. Be it now 
observed that, just as the male god ^iva gathered 
under his own personality the attributes and functions 
of all the principal gods, and became ' the great god ' 
{Mahd-devci) — that is, the most lofty and severe god 
of the Hindu Pantheon, — so his female counterpart 
became ' the one great goddess ' {devi, ?na/id-devJ)^ 
who required more propitiation than any other 
goddess, and to a certain extent represented all 
other female manifestations of the Tri-murti, and 
absorbed all their functions.^ For this reason even 
the wives of Brahma and Vishnu v/ere said to be her 
daughters. According to the Vayu-purana, not only 



' It must not, however, he forgotten that there are a few 
Vaishnava Tantras which substitute Radha, the favourite wife 
of Krishna, for Durga, wife of S'iva. 

- Kulliika (Manu, ii. l) says, Srtitir dvividhd vaidiki tdU' 
irikl ca, 'revelation is twofold, Vedic and Tantrik.' Besides 
the name Agama there are two other names, — Ydmala and 
Ddmara — applied to certain classes of Tantras. 
K 



124 HINDUISM. 

was Siva himself of a twofold nature, male and female 
but his female nature also became twofold, one half 
Asita, or white, and the other half Stia, or black, 
each of these again becoming manifold. The white, 
or mild nature, became separated into the ^aktis, 
called Ufnd, Gaurt, Lakshmi, Sarasvati, &c. ; the 
black, or fierce nature, into those called Durgd^ Kali 
C'andi, C'dmundd, &c. In short, all the other Saktis 
seem to have been included by the Saktas under the 
Sakti or energy of ^iva, which eventually developed 
into innumerable separate manifestations and personi- 
fications of all the forces of nature, physical, physio- 
logical, moral, and intellectual. These forces, or 
rather the deified personalities presiding over them, 
were grouped in classes, such as Mahdvidyds, * sources 
of great knowledge ' ) Mdfris, ' divine mothers ' ; 
Yoginls, ' goddesses having magical powers.' They 
are too numerous to be separately named, various 
classifications having been adopted for the sake of dis- 
posing the female manifestations of Siva, like the male 
incarnations of Vishnu (see p. 103), under different 
degrees of participation in the divine essence ; such 
as the full {purna-saktt, mula-prakriti)^ the partial 
{ansa-rupi?}!) , the still more partial [kald-rupi^l), and 
the partial of the partial {kald7isa-rupml)\ the lowest 
including mortal women in various degrees, from 
Brahman women downwards, who are all worshipped 
as forms of the divine mother upon earth. ^ There 
are, however, certain principal female personifications 

^ In the case of the Vaishnava Saktas, Radha, favourite of 
Krishna, represents the full manifestation, and the Gopis the 
partial. 



HINDUISM. 125 

which it will be well to specify ; for just as the Vaish- 
navas worship ten chief male incarnations of the god 
Vishnu, so the Saktas worship ten chief female mani- 
festations of the god Siva, or rather of his Sakti or 
energy. They are called Mahavidyas, as sources 
of the highest knowledge, or of the knowledge which 
confers preternatural power j and their names are as 
follows : — 

I. A-'^/r (sometimes called Syama). 2. 7«nz, represented as 
a stouter figure than Kali, with legs in a different attitude. 
3. Kamaldtmikd. 4. Mdtaiigi. 5. BhairavT. 6. Chinna-uias- 
takd, represented as a naked headless goddess standing upon 
a human couple and holding in one hand a blood-stained 
scimitar and in the other her own severed head, which drinks 
the warm blood gushing from her headless trunk. 7. SJiodaH 
(sometimes called Tripura). 8. Bhuvanesvaj'T (sometimes 
called Manjughosha). 9. DhScmavatT. 10. F^^a/J or Bagala 
(sometimes called Bagala-mukhi), The last four are milder 
incarnations. 

Besides these, there are principal Matris, Yoginis, 
&c., as already mentioned.^ 

In fact, this phase of Hinduism may be described 
as a kind of worship of force^ branching out into 
endless modifications and correlations, though why 
these should be regarded as female deities rather 
than as male is not at first sight clear. 

In all probability the Tantrika doctrine owes its 



' Some lists give seven, some eight, nine, sixteen, fifty-two 
chief jSIatris ; some upwards of a hundred. The Yoginis are 
sometimes represented as created by Durga, sometimes as 
forms of that goddess ten millions in number. Again, accord- 
ing to some, there are only eight chief Yoginis, according to 
others sixty-five. 

K 2 



126 HINDUISM. 

development to the popularizing of the Sankhya 
theory of Purusha (masculine), the inactive, in- 
different soul, and Prakrlti (feminine), the active pro- 
ducing principle, each distinct from the other, yet 
each uniting in the act of creation. In harmony 
with this idea the images of the 'great god' Siva 
sometimes represent him (see p. 96) as Ai'dha-nari^ 
that is, a being consisting of two halves, the male half 
being on his right side, and the female on his left. 

It may easily be imagined that a creed like this 
was likely to degenerate into impure doctrines, and 
that result was actually brought about ; for those 
who applied the principle of devotion {bhakti) to the 
double nature of the deities, finally re^^olved them- 
selves into two classes, — the first called Dakshind- 
cdrijts, ' right-hand worshippers,' who make the 
Puranas their real Veda {nigama). These are de- 
voted {bhakta) to Siva, Vishnu, Krishna, and their 
wives, but merely in their characters of gods and 
goddesses, not with any undue preference for the 
female divinity, and not with any implication of 
impure ideas ; the second called Vd??i dear ins, ' left- 
hand worshippers,' who are followers of the Kaulo- 
panishad, and make that Upanishad and the Tantras 
their own peculiar Veda {dgama). These devote 
themselves to the worship of the female counterpart 
of the deities, to Durga rather than Siva, to Radha 
rather than Krishna, and to Sita rather than Rama ; 
but especially to Durga, not as Siva's wife, but as 
the goddess who presides over two quite distinct 
operations, — the intercourse of the sexes and the 
acquisition of magical powers. 



HINDUISM. 127 

And here be it noted, that just as Buddhism was 
the expression of a natural effort to break through 
the restraints of caste in one direction, so Saktism or 
Tantrism was an effort in another — the one ending in 
asceticism, the other in licentiousness. 

The rites, or rather orgies of the left-hand wor- 
shippers, presuppose the meeting of men and women 
of all castes in the most unrestrained manner on 
terms of perfect equality.^ They are carried on in 
secret, and are said to require the use of some of the 
five Makaras; namely, — i. Madya, wine; 2. Md?isa, 
flesh; 3. Matsya, fish; 4. Mudrd, parched grain; 2 
5. Maithima, sexual union.^ Each of the above 
is again subdivided into five. But the object of 
these worshippers is not merely to break through the 
restraint of caste and give themselves up to licen- 
tious practices. They also aim at acquiring magical 
and mystical powers by the use, or abuse, of Mantras, 
and what are called Vijas, Nyasas, and Yantras. 



' The circle they form at their meetings is called cakra, and 
the verse cited as the authority for the temporary suppression of 
caste at these meetings is as follows : — Prdpte hi Bhairave cakre 
sarve varnd dvijottavidh N'ivritte Bhairave cakre sarve vai-ndh 
prithak prithak. *' On entering the circle of Bhairava, all castes 
are on an equality with the best of the twice-born ; on leaving 
it, they are again separated inio castes." 

* This grain is eaten like dry biscuit with the wine and spi- 
rituous liquor. The term Mudrd is also used in Tantrism to 
denote mystical intertwinings of the fingers so as to form sym- 
bolical figures. ^ 

2 The union of the actual man and woman in the religion of 
the Tantrikas, or left-hand worshippers, takes the place of the 
Linga and Yoni in that of the right-hand worshippers. 



128 HINDUISM. 

With regard to the Mantras, it should be observed 
that a Mantra with the Tantrikas loses its character 
of a divinely inspired prayer addressed to a deity 
(see p. 1 8). It is generally, indeed, a text from the 
Veda, but rather from the Atharva-veda collection 
than from the three others, and instead of a prayer 
or invocation, becomes a spell or charm, the very 
sound of which, if properly uttered and repeated 
according to prescribed formularies, has, in itself, a 
mystical power for good or evil. 

As to the Vijas, these are mystical letters or 
syllables employed for brevity to denote the root 
{mula), or essential part of a Mantra, the name of 
the deity to whom it may be addressed, or some 
part of the body over which that deity presides. For 
example : — 

Ajji is said to denote S'iva, U Vishnu, Hiirn the sun, Lam 
the earth, Na7?i the mind, Dha^n both the goddess Bhuvanesvari 
and the tongue, Nam both the goddess Annapurna and the nose, 
Pam the ear, &c. 

And here, be it observed, that the proper location 
or application of the several letters of the alphabet 
to the several parts of the body, as symbols of the 
Saktis or Matrikas who preside over those parts is 
called Nydsa, and plays an important part in the 
Tantrik worship. Sound is held to be eternal and 
co-existent with the deity (according to the Mimansa 
aphorism, S'abdo yonitvdd Brahina). Hence the 
letters of the alphabet being the ultimate instru- 
ments by which sounds are uttered and thoughts 
expressed, are considered to possess supernatural 
attributes, and to have in themselves a mystical and 



HINDUISM. 129 

mysterious efficacy. They are supposed to represent 
the several Matrikas, or Saktis (forces), which sustain 
the corporeal organs, and govern the vital functions. 
Let a man only acquaint himself with the proper 
pronunciation and application both of the Mantras 
and of their Vijas, or radical letters, and he acquires 
the power of working prodigies to any extent he 
pleases.! 

As to the Yantras these are mystical diagrams — 
generally combinations of triangular figures, like the 
inverted triangles of the Freemasons — supposed to 
possess occult powers. Each of the Saktis has a 
Yantra assigned to her, which Yantras are sometimes 
placed in the centre of representations of lotuses, 
the Vija of the goddess being also inscribed a cer- 
tain number of times on each petal. 

From the foregoing statement it will justly be 
inferred that the Tantras are generally mere manuals 
of mysticism, magic, and superstition of the worst 
and most silly kind. 

Theoretically, however, they are very different, 
and, as a matter of fact, they are not all of this cha- 
racter. There are about sixty-four original Tantras, 
and a large number of other Tantrik works, generally 
written in the form of a dialogue between the god 
Siva and his wife. None of the actual Tantras have, 
as yet, been printed or translated in Europe. Prac- 



' There are certain Brahmans called Mantra-sastrls who 
make this their peculiar business. Hence the saying that * all 
the universe is subject to the gods, the gods are subject to the 
Mantras, and the Mantras to the Brahmans. Therefore, the 
Brahmans are the gods of the universe.' 



130 HINDUISM. 

tically, they constitute a fifth Veda (in place of the 
Puranas), for the Saktas, or worshippers of the female 
divine energy {S'akti) of the male gods, on which 
account the name Agama is sometimes given to the 
original Tantras to distinguish them from Nigama, a 
name only applied to the Vedas and Puranas. 

Every Tantra ought, like a Purana, to treat of five 
subjects; namely, — i. The Creation; 2. The destruc- 
tion of the world; 3. The worship of the gods; 4. 
The attainment of all objects, especially of eight 
superhuman powers {siddhi) ; 5. The four modes of 
union with the Supreme Spirit (see p. 51). Very few 
conform even partially to this rule. Most of them 
are mere hand-books for the use of practisers of a 
kind of witchcraft, which to Europeans appears so 
ineffably absurd that the possibility of any persons 
believing in it seems in itself almost incredible. 
Whole Tantras teach nothing but what may be called 
the science of employing unmeaning sounds for 
acquiring magical power over friends, and for de- 
stroying enemies and rivals. 

Some give collections of spells suitable for making 
people enamoured, for destroying sight, for producing 
or preventing diseases, for injuring crops, for alchemy 
{7'asdyafia). Others explain the most effectual modes 
of worshipping the Saktis, Mahavidyas, Matris, 
Yoginis, Vatukas, or by whatever name the innumer- 
able manifestations of Siva and his wife may be 
called. Others simply describe the Yantras, Vijas, 
and Mudras (intertwinings of the fingers) belonging 
to each manifestation, the places suited for the wor- 
ship of each, the names of trees and plants sacred to 



HINDUISM. 131 

each, or permeated by each, and the days of the 
year allotted to each. Some few touch on nearly 
every conceivable topic of human knowledge, and 
contain here and there really interesting matter. 

So little is known about the composition of these 
mystical writings that it is not possible to decide at 
present as to which are the most ancient, and still 
less as to the date to be assigned to any of them. 
They are all said to be founded on the Kaulopanishad. 
It may, however, be taken for granted that the extant 
treatises are, like the extant Puranas, founded on older 
works ; and if the oldest known Purana is not older 
than the sixth or seventh century, an earlier date can 
scarcely be attributed to the oldest known Tantra. 
Perhaps the Rudra-ydmala is one of the most de- 
servedly esteemed and most encyclopedic in its 
teaching.^ Others are the S'akH-sa?iga7na, Visva-sdra, 
Mahd-nirvdiia, Vira, Kiddrnava (or text-book of the 
Kaulas), S'ydmd - rahasya, S'aradd-tilaka, Uddisa, 
Kdmdkhyd, Vishn u-ydfnala. 

Full as the above works are of doubtful symbolism, 
they are not necessarily full of impure allusions, 
though the teaching contained in the best of them 
unquestionably tends towards licentiousness. When 
they are better known, their connection with a distorted 
view of the Sankhyan philosophy, and with some of the 
corrupt forms of Buddhism,will probably be made clear. 

There are also works called Vaishnava Tantras, 
such as the Gautamiya and the Safiai-kumdra, but 



' It is said to consist of 100,000 verses. A section of it, 
called Jati-mala, treating of caste, has been printed at Calcutta. 



132 HINDUISM. 

even in these Siva is the narrator and his wife the 
supposed listener. Moreover their teaching, which 
makes Radha, the wife of Krishna, take the place of 
Durga as the chief object of adoration, has the same 
tendency as that of the other Tantras, and equally 
leads to licentiousness. 

It may be well to give some idea of what this 
Tantrik teaching really is, by a specimen of the 
directions given for performing the rite called Bhuta- 
suddki, a rite the aim of which is to expel the evil 
spirits whose presence would interfere with the due 
performance of subsequent ceremonies. The direc- 
tions are here abridged from a native work on the 
Durga-puja of Bengal. 1 

Holding a scented flower, anointed with sandal, on the left 
temple, repeat Ofti to the Gurus, Of?i to Ganesa, Om to Durga. 
Then with Omphat rub the palms with flowers, and clap the 
hands thrice over the head, and by snapping the fingers towards 
ten different directions, secure immunity from the evil spirits. 
Next utter the Mantra Ra?n, sprinkle water all around, and 
imagine this water as a wall of fire. Let the priest identify 
himself with the animal spirit [jivdtniaii) abiding in man's 
breast, in the form of the tapering flame of a lamp, and conduct 
it by means of the Sushumna nerve through the six spheres 
within the body upwards to the Divine Spirit. Then medi- 
tate on the twenty-four essences in nature ; viz. the five cardinal 
elements, the five external organs of sense, the five organs of 
action, with those of self-consciousness and self-cogitation or 
egoism. 

Conceive in the left nostril the Mantra Faw, declared to be 
the Vija or root of wind ; repeat it sixteen times while drawing 
air by the same nostril ; then close the nose and hold the 
breath, and repeat the Mantra sixty-four times. 



' The author's name is Pratdpa-'candra Ghosha. 



HINDUISM. 133 

Then meditate on Matrika, and say, * Help me, goddess of 
speech ' : Am to the forehead, Aj?i to the mouth, Im to the 
right eye, Im to the left eye, U7/1 to the right ear. Urn to the 
left ear, Im to the right cheek, Im to the left cheek, E^n to the 
upper lip, Ai/n to the lower lip, 0>?i to the upper teeth, Aurn to 
the lower teeth, Tarn, Tham, Dam, Dhaj?i, and N'ajn to the 
several parts of the left leg, Fam to the right side, Fhatji to the 
left, Ba?n to the back, Ma>/i to the stomach. Yarn to the heart, 
Rafu to the right shoulders. Lam to the neck-bone, Vam to the 
left shoulders, Saj?i from the heart to the right leg. Ham from 
the heart to the left leg, Kshatu from the heart to the mouth. 



134 HINDUISM. 



CHAPTER X. 

MEDIEVAL AND MODERN SECTS. 

In the previous chapters we have endeavoured to 
trace briefly the progress of Hinduism, and have 
followed it to the last stage of its development in 
medieval times — to its darkest and worst phase, 
Saktism or Tantrism. It is believed that six or seven 
hundred years ago Saktism was universally prevalent 
throughout the greater part of India, as indeed it 
still is in Bengal and many other extensive districts. 
This general degradation of religion through what is 
called the left-hand form of worship — or devotion to 
the female counterpart of Siva — led to the springing 
up of various reforming sects, and to them we must 
now turn our attention. It is a subject which opens 
out an almost unbounded field on which to expatiate, 
and volumes might be written before exhausting it. 
Our limited space, however, restricts us to a brief 
notice of some of the chief sects ; and at the very 
outset we are met by a difficulty as to what is meant 
by a Hindu sect ? 

The term is sometimes applied in a general way 
to five classes of worshippers, viz. the VaishT^avas^ 
S'aivas, and S'dktas, with the Satiras, Sun-worshippers, 
and Gdnapaiyas, adorers of Ganapati (Ganesa), the lord 
of the troops of devils. But the greater number ot 



HINDUISM. 135 

Hindus are worshippers of Vishnu, Siva or their Sak- 
tis ; and although many display special preference for 
one or the other, many also pay homage to all these 
deities equally, without belonging to particular sects. 

Moreover, all good Hindus adore the sun (Stlrya) 
daily, and scarcely any religious rite is performed 
without homage being paid to him or Mantras being 
addressed to him, while only a few persons here and 
there are specially initiated into his Mantra, or select 
him for their special saviour. Again, all Hindus 
worship the god Ganesa, as the remover of obstacles at 
the commencement of every undertaking ; some of his 
forms (such as Dhundhi-raja at Benares) receiving 
special worship at solitary places. In fact, the systems 
we have styled Vaishnavism, Saivism, and Saktism, 
with Sun-worship and Ganesa-worship, constitute, so 
to speak, the chief staple of ordinary Hinduism. 

Evidently, therefore, it must lead to confusion 
of thought if these five names are used to express 
sectarian separation from the every-day belief and 
practice of the bulk of the Hindu people. But 
we may legitimately employ the term ' sect ' to 
designate separate societies or communities within 
the tAvo leading systems of Vaishnavism and Saivism 
— separate divisions, in fact, of these systems them- 
selves, originated by particular revivalist leaders for 
the enforcement of greater strictness of devotion to 
the Hindu gods, whose worship had degenerated 
through the influence of Buddhism, or for the 
propagation of their own peculiar ideas in morals 
and philosophy. Such divisions are called Sam- 
pradayas, as representing the peculiar traditionary 



136 HINDUISM. 

doctrine originated by such teachers, and handed 
down from generation to generation. 

One most noticeable feature in the Sampradayas 
founded by these reformers has been the exaggera- 
tion of the princijDle of faith and love [bhakfi), so 
that even caste was subordinated to it ; in other words, 
the making devotion to Krishna (Vishnu) or Siva, but 
especially an enthusiastic love for the former, a bond 
of union stronger than all social distinctions. 

Those who made every other duty give way to this 
religious passion called themselves, not Vaishnavas or 
^aivas, but Bhaktas. They made songs, music, 
dancing, and waving of lights {drti), take the place 
of the old Vedic Mantras, substituted vernacular 
prayers for those in Sanskrit, and paid special adora- 
tion to the images of Krishna. Moreover, they be- 
Heved that for the attainment of beatitude it was 
necessary to pass through five stages : i . That of 
S'dnti, or calm contemplation of the deity ; 2. That 
of Ddsya, or servitude; 3. That of Sakhya, or 
friendship ; 4. That of Vdtsalya, or filial affection ; 
and 5. That of Mddhurya, or tender love. 

In the practice of this Bhakti they knew no dis- 
tinction of caste. 

There seems, indeed, to have been a general desire 
on the part of the leaders of religious thought in India 
to follow the example of the great Buddha in his 
efforts to deliver the people from the tyranny of caste 
rules. At any rate they saw that the popularity of the 
doctrines they inculcated depended on their attract- 
ing adherents from all ranks, high and low. Hence, 
most of the great religious revivalists proclaimed the 



HINDUISM. 137 

social equality of all who enrolled themselves in the 
same society, as worshippers of the same deity. But 
just as Buddhism ultimately fell back into Brahmanism, 
so has every movement in the direction of equality and 
fraternity ended by a return, more or less complete, 
to the original condition of subjection to Brahmanical 
authority and obedience to the law of caste distinc- 
tions. 

In all likelihood the Brahmanical revival under 
Sankard'cdrya (to whom allusion has already been 
made) was nothing but a reaction towards caste. 
It probably originated in the desire of the Brahmans 
to make some counter-demonstration against the 
Buddhistic movement. Sankara himself was a strict 
Brahman and a great teacher of the Vedanta philo- 
sophy. He was therefore a strenuous upholder of the 
Advaita doctrine (see p. Z-^^ and although his fol- 
lowers, who are very numerous in the South of India, 
sometimes call themselves Saivas, they more generally 
style themselves Smdrtas, as claiming to adhere 
strictly to Smriti. Sankara is said to have been a 
native of Kerala (Malabar), and to have flourished 
about the end of the 7th or beginning of the 8th 
century. He led an erratic, controversial Hfe, and 
is thought by some to have inculcated the preferential 
worship of the god ^iva, as identified with the Supreme 
Being, of whom some declare him to have been an 
incarnation. Tradition also makes him the founder 
of a Saiva sect of ascetics, called the Das'nami Dan dins, 
* ten named mendicants,' so called because divided 
into ten classes. 

Others again maintain that Sankara had a prefer- 



138 HINDUISM. 

ence for Vaishnavism. But, as a Vedantist, he 
really had no preference either for Siva or Vishnu. 
He is the reputed author of a vast number of 
treatises and commentaries on the Vedanta philo- 
sophy (including the Atma-bodha and Anafida-lahari). 
His learning and sanctity were in such repute that 
he was held to have worked various miracles ; 
amongst others, animating the dead body of a king 
Amaru, so as to be able to argue with the wife of a 
Brahman, named Mandana.^ 

Let us now notice briefly, and, if possible, in 
chronological order, six principal divisions of Vaish- 
navism founded by leaders who lived at different 
epochs. They may be distinguished from each other 
by the names of their founders, thus, — 

I. The Nimbdrkas. 2. The Rdjndriujas. 

3. The Madhvdcdryas. 4. The Rd?ndna)idas, 

5. The Vallabhdcdryas. 6. The Caitanyas. 

Of course, the common link of all these sects is 
their belief in the supremacy of Vishnu. Their differ- 
ence consists in the character assigned to that god, in 
the practices and usages founded thereon by the 
leader to which each sect owes its origin, in the 
philosophical doctrines taught by that leader, and in 
distinctive sectarian marks (p. 98). 

I. To begin with the Nimbarkas (vulgarly called 
Nzmdndis), perhaps the least important of the six 

* His object is supposed to have been to become the husband 
of the king's widow for a time, that he might learn by expe- 
rience how to argue on amatory subjects with the wife of the 
Brahman. This is described in the celebrated poem, Amaru- 
iataka, to which a mystical interpretation is given. 



HINDUISM. 139 

Vaishnava scctS; but the first in chronological 
order. 

The founder's name was Nimbarka or Nimbaditya, 
and is generally supposed to have been identical with 
the astronomer, Bhaskaracarya, who is thought to 
have flourished in the 12th century. 

Others regard him as an actual incarnation of the 
Sun-god, undertaken for the revival of religion and 
the suppression of heresy. 

The adherents of this sect possess few characteristic pecu- 
liarities. They worship Krishna and Radha conjointly, and 
their chief scriptural authority is the Bhagavata-purana (see 
p. 119). Although Nimbarka is said to have written a commen- 
tary on the Veda, this sect is not possessed of any literature of 
their own, the want of which they attribute to the destruction 
of their books at Mathura, in the time of Aurangzib. 

This sect is distinguished by two perpendicular 
yellowish lines, made of Gopicandana earth, drawn 
from the root of the hair to the commencement of each 
eyebrow, and there meeting in a curve, to represent 
the footprint of Vishnu. A second curve is some- 
times added below. 

It should be noted here, that the poet Jayadeva. 
who is thought to have lived in the 12th century, may 
be said to have followed Nimbarka in promoting the 
doctrine of devotion to Krishna by his celebrated 
poem called Gita-govinda, in which are described the 
loves of Krishna and the Gopis as typical of the 
longing of the human soul for union with the divine."^ 



* The late Dr. Adam Clarke appeal's to have been struck 
with the resemblance of this mystical poem to the Song of 
Solomon. See his Commentary. 
L 



14© HINDUISM. 

2. The Rdmdniijas. — These come next in order of 
time, and are a most important sect in the South of 
India. 

They were founded by the celebrated reformer 
Ramanuja, who was born at Sri Parambattur (about 26 
miles west of Madras), and is known to have studied 
at Conjeveram, and to have resided at ^ri Rangam, 
near Trichinopoly. He probably flourished about the 
middle or latter part of the 12 th century. The chief 
doctrine he promulgated was, that Vishnu is the 
Supreme Being, that he was before all worlds, and 
was the cause and creator of all things. 

This sect has two grand subdivisions : — i. The Vadagalais, 
or Northern School of Ramanujas j 2. The Tengalais, or 
Southern School. The difference in their doctrines is something 
the same as that of Arminian and Calvinist. In philosophy 
they both belong to the Advaita, or non-dualistic school ; but 
Ramanuja, although he affirmed the ultimate oneness of man's 
soul with God's, declared that in the body they were practically 
distinct. This doctrine he called Visisht-ddvaita ' qualified 
non-duality.' One peculiarity of the sect consists in the 
scrupulous preparation and privacy of their meals. Another 
peculiarity is that they never allow mustachios on the upper 
lip. Moreover, they often have the cakra and other symbols 
of Vishnu branded on their arms. 

The frontal mark of both subdivisions of this'sect- 
consists of two perpendicular white lines drawn from 
the root of the hair to the commencement of each 
eyebrow, and meeting below in a cun^e. A central 
perpendicular reddish line is added to represent 
Lakshmi ; and, in the case of the Tengalais, the white 
line is extended halfway down the nose, and the whole 
is supposed to represent the two feet of Vishnu. 



HINDUISM. 141 

3. The Mddhvas, or Madhvdcdryas, are VaishnavaS; 
but are not so important a sect as the last. 

They were founded by the sage Madhva, or Madh- 
vacarya, otherwise called Ana7ida-tirtha and Purna- 
prajna, who was a strenuous opponent of Sankara- 
carya's Advaita system of philosophy. He is said to 
have been born about the year 1200, and to have 
been educated in a convent at Anantesvar. 

Many of the disciples of this sect live in Mathas, or monas- 
teries. Many of them are also simply philosophers, tRe school 
established by Madhva being called Dvaita, dualism, in oppo- 
sition to the A-dvaita school, upheld by S'ankaracarya, and 
followed by the Smartas. The Dvaita school of Madhva 
asserts that the supreme soul is essentially difterent from the 
human soul and from the material world. God and man have 
a real and eternally distinct existence. 

The frontal mark of this sect, who are chiefly found 
in the South of India, consists of two thin perpendicu- 
lar lines meeting below in a curve, like those of the 
Ramanujas, but the colour is red (instead of white), 
and the central perpendicular line is black, being 
generally made with the charcoal from incense burnt 
before the idols of Vishnu. 

4. The Rd7ndnandas (often called Ramanandis), 
are sometimes confounded with the Ramanujas, from 
whom they differ very slightly. Indeed, Ramananda, 
the founder, was a disciple of Ramanuja, and a 
teacher of substantially similar doctrines. 

He flourished at Benares about the beginning of the 14th 
century. His followers are numerous in Gangetic India, 
especially around Agra. They worship Vishnu under the form of 
Rama-candra with his consort Sita. Their favourite work 
is the Bhakta-mala, and their sectarian marks resemble those of 
L 2 



142 HINDUISM. 

the Ramanujas. Their founder taught that all distinction of 
caste among the Vairagis and ascetic orders ought to be 
abolished. 

Ramananda had twelve disciples, among whom the 
most celebrated was a remarkable reformer named 
Kabir, Avho probably lived about the end of the 1 4th 
century. 

This Kabir became the founder of a distinct sect. 
He assailed idolatry with great boldness, and ridi- 
culed the religious practices of his fellow-countrymen, 
though he allowed adoration to be paid to Vishnu or 
Rama, as names for one god. He promulgated a high 
moral code, declaring that life was a sacred gift of 
God, and that the blood of men or animals ought 
never to be shed by his creatures. He laid great stress 
on truthfulness, and advocated retirement from the 
world for the attainment of control over the passions. 

It is supposed that Nanak Shah, the founder of the 
Sikh religion, who was born in the Panjab, near 
Lahore, and in the reign of Babar about the year 1500, 
attempted a compromise between Hinduism and 
Islam, w^as indebted to his predecessor Kabir, for his 
pantheistic opinions, and some of the other ideas 
which characterize his system.^ His order of ascetics 
(corresponding to Sannyasis and Vairagis), are called 
Udasis. 

5. The Vallahhdcdryas form a very important sect 
in Bombay, Gujarat, and Central India. 

> The Adi-grantha, * first book,' which embodies his system, 
£nd is the bible of the Sikhs (prohibiting idol-worship, and 
teaching the unity of the Godhead pantheistically) was promul- 
gated about the time of our Reformation. 



HINDUISM. 143 

Their founder, Vallabhacarya, is said to have been 
born in the forest C'amparanya in 1479, ^^^ is regarded 
by his followers as an incarnation of Krishna. 
Various miraculous stories are fabled about him. 
For instance, his intelligence is alleged to have been so 
great that when he commenced learning at the age of 
seven, he mastered the four Vedas, the six systems of 
Philosophy, and the eighteen Puranas in four months. 

After such precocity we need not wonder that at the age of 
twelve he had formulated his teaching, and commenced travelling 
to propagate his doctrines. When he reached the court of Krish- 
nadeva, king of Vijayanagar, he was invited to a public dis- 
putation with the S'aivas, in which he succeeded so well that he 
was elected chief Acarya of the Vaishnavas. He then travelled for 
nine years through different parts of India, and finally settled in 
Benares, where he composed seventeen works' ; among which 
was the * Bhagavata-tika-subhodhinI,' or commentary on the 
Bhagavata-purana, which last work, especially its tenth book 
(see p. 107), is the chief authoritative source of the doctrines of 
the sect. In philosophy he maintained Vedantist doctrines, and 
called his system Suddhadvaita, 'pure non-dualism,' to distin- 
guish it from the ViHshiddvaita of Ramanuja. Vallabhacarya 
died at Benares, or, according to his followers, was transported 
to heaven while performing his ablutions in the Ganges. 

Vallabhacarya left behind him eighty-four disciples 
who dispersed themselves throughout India and 
disseminated his doctrines. But the real successor 
to the Gadi (==gaddi) or Chair of Vallabhacarya 
was his second son, Vitthalnath, sometimes called 
Gosainji from his having settled at Gokul, near 
Muttra (Mathura). This Vitthalnath had seven sons, 
each of whom established a Gaddi in different parts 
of India, especially in Bombay, Kutch, Kattiwar, 
and Malwa, and particularly among the merchants 



144 HINDUISM. 

and traders called Banias and Bhatias. The influ- 
ence of Vallabhacarya's successors became so great 
that they acquired the title of Maharaja, the name 
Gosain (for Gosvamin — lord of cows — an epithet of 
Krishna) being sometimes added. 

Vallabhacarya's system is called Pushii-mdrga — 'the 
way of eating, drinking, and enjoying oneself; that is 
to say, worshipping the deity, not with fasting, self- 
denial, self-mortification, and penitence, but with in- 
dulgence of the natural appetites and enjoyment of the 
good things of the world. The god worshipped is the 
Krishna form of Vishnu with his wives the Gopis or 
cowherdesses. But their idol is generally one repre- 
senting Krishna in his childhood, till his twelfth year. 
According to the purer Vaishnava faith Krishna's love 
for the Gopis, and especially for his favourite Radha, 
is to be explained allegorically, as symbolizing the 
longing of the human soul for the Supreme. But the 
Vallabhacaryas interpreted it in a gross and material 
sense. Hence their devotion to Krishna and his 
wives degenerated into the most corrupt practices, and 
their system became rotten to the core. Their men 
had brought themselves to believe that they must as- 
similate themselves to female Gopis in doing homage 
to their god, and the Maharajas or spiritual chiefs, 
the successors of Vallabhacarya, were to dress like 
women in order to commend themselves to Krishna. 

But far more than this, these Maharajas had come to 
be regarded as representatives of Krishna upon earth, 
and it was even believed by many that they were 
divine beings — incarnations of the god. Hence in the 
temples, where the Maharajas did homage to the 



HINDUISM. . 145 

idols, men and women did homage to the Ma- 
harajas, prostrating themselves at their feet, offer- 
ing them incense, fruits, and flowers, and waving 
lights before them, as the Maharajas themselves did 
before the images of the gods. One mode of wor- 
shipping the idols was by swinging them. Hence, 
women worshipped the Maharajas by swinging them 
also in swings. The Pan-supari ejected from their 
mouths and the leavings of their food were eagerly 
devoured by their devotees, who also drank the water 
rinsed from their garments, and called C'aranamrita, 
' feet nectar.' 

But infinitely worse than all this — it was believed 
that the best mode of propitiating them was by minis- 
tering to their sensual appetites. Body, soul, and 
property {tan^ man, dhati) were to be wholly made 
over to them by their disciples, and their women were 
taught to believe that highest bliss would be secured 
to themselves and their families by the caresses of 
Krishna's representatives. 

It was this utter corruption of the Vaishnava faith 
that led to a modern Puritan movement under a 
reformer Svami-Narayan, whose followers now num- 
ber from 150,000 to 200,000 persons. They are 
chiefly found in Gujarat, though a few are scat- 
tered here and there in the Deccan. Elsewhere in 
India they are unknown. They are presided over by 
two spiritual chiefs, the alleged successors of Svami- 
Narayan, and who like those of the Vallabhacaryas, 
are styled Maharajas, their full title being, however, 
Maharajadhiraja. One of them is settled at Wartal, 
the other at Ahmedabad, the former taking the pre- 



146 HINDUISM. 

cedence, from the superior importance of the temple 
and monastery of which he is head. 

Svami-Narayan, who took the name of Sahajananda 
SvamI (corrupted into Sejananda), was not a native 
of Gujarat. He was born in 1780 A.D., at Chapai, 
a town in Oudh, about sixty kos to the north-east of 
Lucknow, and died about the year 1830, when he 
was forty-nine years old. 

Living in Gujarat, he soon became stirred in spirit by the 
sensuality of the Vallabhacaryas. To counteract their licenti- 
ous practices, Svami-Narayan, who, to a natural leaning towards 
Uddsa and asceticism, joined all the energy of a great reformer, 
made chastity and purity of life the keynote of all his teaching,' 
and ended by boldly asserting that he himself, and not Valla- 
hhacarya, was the true incarnation of Krishna, and that the god, 
in order to restore the Vaishnava faith to its former purity, had 
descended in his person as a Brahmacarl, or Brahman under a 
vow of continence. 

6. TJie C'aifanyas. This sect is peculiar to Bengal 
and Orissa, where it is of great importance and well 
known. 

The founder, C'aitanya, was born about 1485, and 
regarded as an incarnation of Krishna. At the age 
of twenty-four he became an ascetic, and travelled to 
Jagannath, in Orissa, where he taught Vaishnava 
doctrines. 

He remained twelve years at Katak, engaged in intense medi- 



* Their code of instnictions is of a very pure and lofty cha- 
racter. It is comprised in a little work called S' ikshd-patrt, a 
copy of which, with a commentary in Gujarat! and Sanskrit, 
was presented to me by the Maharaja of Wartal on the occasion 
of my visit to the temple and monaster}' at that place, over which 
he presides. 



HINDUISM. 147 

tation on Krishna. But this was not his only occupation. lie 
insisted on the importance of singing {sanHriana) and dancing, 
as well as of contemplation, to fit the mind for ecstatic com- 
munion with the deity, and his followers often swooned away 
in their fits of religious emotion. He was himself subject to fits 
of religious ecstasy, and died during one of them whilst bathing 
in the sea near Purl. After his death he was canonized, and 
declared to have been an incarnation of Krishna, 

C'aitanya's disciples soon spread themselves over 
Bengal. They hold that Krishna is the Supreme 
Being, and that bhakti or faith in him is more effi- 
cacious than knowledge, than subjugation of the 
passions, than meditation {yoga), than charity, virtue, 
or anything usually deemed most meritorious. All 
castes become by such faith equally pure, and all 
castes are equally admissible into the sect. Their 
chief ritual consists in constantly repeating the name 
Krishna. A great many treatises have been written 
in support of their tenets, which are highly esteemed 
in Bengal. 

Besides the above-described six principal sects of 
Vaishnavas, there are many others of less importance ; 
such as the followers of Viththalox Vithohd (a form of 
Krishna)^ worshipped more especially at Pandharpur 
in Maha-rashtra, and the favourite of the celebrated 
Marathi poet Tukarama ; the followers of Dddu 
{Dddil-pat/wis), a famous ascetic who lived at Jaipur 
about A.D. 1600^ the Mlrahdts a subdivision of the 
Vallabhacaryas founded by Mirabai, the wife of the 
Rana of Udaipur ; and several others. 



' The images of this form of Krishna generally represent him 
and his wife with their hands resting on their hips. 



148 HINDUISM. 

With regard to the so-called Saiva sects, there are 
a large number of ^aivas in the South of India, called 
Li?iga-vats (commonly Linga-its and Jangamas), as 
wearmg the Linga on their persons. They were 
founded by a leader named Vrishabha, who taught 
the suppression of all caste distinctionr;, and the use- 
lessness of all Brahmanical rites. This sect bury 
instead of burning their dead. Another so called 
Saiva sect, the Pdhipatas (worshippers of Siva in 
his character of Fahi-pati, lord of the soul, called 
pasii)^ base their philosophical doctrines on a system 
called ^iva-siddhanta. 

Saiva ascetics are properly called Sannyasis, but 
they are often confounded with other orders of 
ascetics, called Vairagis (supposed to be properly 
Vaishnavas), Gosains, Yogis, &c. The following are 
other orders : — 

The Paramahansas, or the highest order of Yogis, who are 
solely occupied with meditating on Brahma ; ' the Aghoyms or 
Aghora-pathins, who propitiate S'iva by revolting austerities ; 
the Urdhva-bdhus, who extend one or both arms over the head 
and hold them in that position for years ; the AkdJa-mukhins, 
who keep their necks bent back looking up at the sky; the 
Dandins, or mendicant staff-bearers, a subdivision of Avhom has 
been already described as founded by S'ankaracarya (see p. 137). 

Having thus noted the principal divisions of 
Vaishnavas and Saivas, which owe their origin to the 
great leaders of religious thought and practice in 
medieval and modern times, we cannot conclude this 



' This is the highest order of ascetics. The theory is that a 
Yogi who aims at perfection ought to go through six courses of 
austerity of twelve years each. In the last he is called a 
Parama-hansa. 



HINDUISM. 149 

part of our subject without glancing at the opinions 
of the Brahmas, or members of the various modern 
theistical societies (Samajas) now springing up in 
various parts of India. Their first founder was a 
well-known Brahman, named Raja Ram Mohun Roy, 
a man of great ability, born near Burdwan, in 1774. 
He was the first Hindu reformer that arose after the 
establishment of the British Raj in India. 

Besides exerting himself for the abolition of Sati 
(commonly called Suttee, or the burning of Indian 
widows with their deceased husbands), and the promo 
tion of native education, he preached everywhere pure 
monotheism, endeavouring to prove that the idolatry 
of the Hindus was contrary to the practice of their 
ancestors, and to the precepts of the Veda ; but he 
used the Indian name Brahma for the Supreme 
Being, and called the society he founded the Brahma- 
sa7ndj, or Society of God. Its doctrines were in fact 
founded on a monotheistic interpretation of the Veda. 

After the death of Ram Mohun Roy, his friend 
Dvaraka Nath Tagore, a man of great weight and 
influence, gave his support to the Brahma-samaj, but 
it languished without a leader till his son Debendra 
Nath Tagore formed the nucleus of a new community, 
now called the Adi Samaj, or first church. This 
society publicly renounced idolatry, and declared 
their belief in the one God as defined in the Vedanta. 
Then a third great leader arose, Keshab C'andra Sen 
who has recently visited England. He rejects en- 
tirely the Hindu system, including the Vedanta. 
His society is called the Progressive or New Samaj 
(Nuiajia). Their creed may be described as " a belief 



150 HINDUISM. 

in the Fatherhood of God, and the Brotherhood of 
mankind," and its theology might be well expressed 
by the first part of the first Article of the Church of 
England : " There is but one living and true God — 
everlasting, without body, parts, or passions, of infinite 
power, wisdom and goodness, the maker and preserver 
of all things." 

Other forms of theistical Samaj exist in India ; for 
example, one called the Prarthana Samaj or Prayer 
Society, at Bombay. These have the Vedanta formula 
Ekatn evddvitlya7n (see p. n) inscribed over the en- 
trance to their house of prayer, recently erected. 
Moreover, a new Brahman reformer named Daya- 
nanda, has recently appeared, and is attracting many 
adherents in the West of India. He is engaged in 
writing a new commentary to the Rig-veda, which he 
interprets monotheistically, and his society is called 
the Arya-samaj. 

We must acknowledge with thankfulness the good 
these theistical societies are doing by their uncom- 
promising opposition to idolatry, fanaticism, supersti- 
tion, and caste. They are the present protestants of 
India. 

Nevertheless it is to be feared that, with the 
exception of the Progressive Samaj of Calcutta, they 
are not altogether free from a suspicion of pantheistic 
proclivities. 



HINDUISM. 151 

CHAPTER XL 

MODERN CASTES. 

Notwithstanding the constant efforts of great 
religious leaders in India to deliver their fellow- 
countrymen from the tyranny of caste, the power ot 
caste has always in the end recovered its ascendency. 
It might almost indeed be inferred from the influence 
exerted by caste-rules on the daily life of the Hindus 
that the whole of their religion was centred in caste- 
observances, and that Hinduism and caste were con- 
vertible terms. And, in point of fact, strictness in 
the maintenance of caste is the only real test of 
Hinduism exacted by the Brahmans of the present 
day. In matters of mere faith, Hinduism is (as we 
have seen) all-tolerant and all-receptive. No person 
who is not born a Brahman can become one, but any 
person can be admitted into the lower ranks of Hin- 
duism who will acknowledge the supremacy of the 
Brahmans and obey the rules of caste. So long as 
a man holds to his caste, he is at liberty to hold any 
opinions he likes, even to accepting the doctrines of 
Christianity. 

Perfection is alone attained by him 

Who swerves not from the business of his caste. ' 

Caste, as a social institution, exists, of course, in 



' See the Bhagavad - Gita, quoted in the appendix of this 
volume (p. 209). 



152 HINDUISM. 

all countries, and in England operates with no slight 
potency. We believe in a close connection between 
blood and breeding ; and, although we do not go so 
far as to hold that different grades of society have 
different coloured skins (according to the original 
Hindu theory), yet we have a difficulty in admitting 
that a man who is not a gentleman by birth can ever 
be made one by training. With us, however, caste is 
not a religious institution. On the contrary, our 
religion, though it sanctions differences of rank, 
teaches us that class -distinctions ought to be laid 
aside in the worship of God, and that there is no 
respect of persons with Him. Nor with us does 
caste prevent a certain amount of social union, inter- 
course, interchange of ideas, and even intermarriage, 
between the various classes of society ; nor does it, as 
in India, operate to merge the individual in the cor- 
porate body, to set class against class, to prevent the 
lower rising to the upper, and to make national union 
impossible. On the contrary, with us all ranks and 
orders so run into each other and blend imperceptibly 
together, that it becomes impossible to separate them 
into sharply-defined strata, or to say where the upper 
ends and the middle or lower begins. 

Very different is the caste theory of the Hindus. 
The doctrine of Manu was (see pp. 57, 58) that the 
deity created distinct kinds of men, as he created 
varieties of animals ; and that Brahmans, Kshatriyas, 
Vaisyas, and Sudras were born and must remain from 
birth to death distinct from each other. A Brahman, 
however, could have four wives, and marry a woman 
belonging to any of the three lower castes. Inter- 
marriage could also take place between members of 



HINDUISM. 153 

all the four classes, or again, between the mixed 
castes which resulted from such intercourse. In this 
way it happened that, although no man could himsell 
enter a caste higher or lower than his own, he might 
by the act of marriage lead to the formation of a new 
mixed caste, to which a distinct occupation was as- 
signed. It was thus, in fact, that new mixed castes were 
constantly created, and even castes of the lowest grade 
were derived from the highest by occasional perpe- 
tration of what was held to be a great abomination — 
the marriage of a Sudra father "with a woman of a 
superior caste. For example, a Catj.ddla, or hunter of 
animals, living in holes, who was the most degraded 
of mortals and not allowed to perform Sraddhas for 
his o\vn ancestors, had a Brahman mother and Sudra 
father ; and the Ayogava, or carpenter, who was also 
utterly despised, was half Vaisya, half ^udra. Again, 
the Sva-pdka, dog-feeder, who was a public execu- 
tioner and compelled to live outside villages, was half 
Kshatriya, half Sudra. 

The only caste that has retained its purity to any 
extent is that of the Brahmans, though examples 
of pure Kshatriyas may be found among the Rajputs, 
and some pure Vaisyas probably exist among the 
Baniahs, or traders and shopkeepers. Moreover, 
instead of Manu's mixed castes, — arising from the 
permissible intermarriage of the pure castes, — we 
have an almost endless number of what may be 
called trade-castes, resulting chiefly from associations 
of men engaged in the same occupations, — which are 
being constantly created, and in which exclusiveness 
and restrictions in regard to social intercourse and 
intermarriage are enforced far more strictly than in the 



154 HINDUISM. 

original pure castes of ancient times. Many of these 
trade-unions resemble the guilds of artisans once 
common in Europe, and have numerous sub-castes 
under them.^ Each society keeps aloof from the 
other, and shuts itself up in its own independence. 
And yet, within each caste, individual independence 
is impossible, because no individual can act alone, 
but only in conjunction with his caste-fellows. 

Probably, the original idea of caste was, that 
difference of complexion, or skin-colour {i'a7-na), 
marked a natural separation between the grades of 
society. The early immigrants found parts of India 
occupied by Negrito aborigines, almost as dark as 
Africans ; and they themselves, by intermarriage with 
the primitive tribes (some of them afterwards called 
Sudras), and again by further intermarriage among 
themselves, lost their original fairness of complexion. 
Hence subsequent immigrants arriving in India, and 
finding those already settled there as cultivators of 
the soil ivaisyas) more dark-coloured than themselves, 
claimed a superiority of rank based upon greater 
purity of blood, which purity, they believed, could 
only be maintained by strict prohibitions against 
intermarriage with the lower classes. We may in this 
way account for the origin of the higher castes of 
Brahmans and Kshatriyas. Soon a theory was ad- 
vanced that food had an important effect on the 
preservation of blood-purity, and strict regulations 
about eating and drinking came into force. As time 
went on, still further safeguards were elaborated. 

^ In the North-west, the Kayasth, or writer caste, has twelve 
subdivisions, and similarly, the BarhaT, or carpenter caste, has 
seven sub-castes, none of v.hicli can eat togetlier. 



HINDUISM. 155 

Even contact with the skin of persons of inferior 
caste was thought Ukely to cause contamination. 
Hence, only men of the same caste were allowed to 
eat together and work together ; and when a death 
occurred, no man could be carried to the burning- 
ground except by his own caste-fellows. These rules 
have multiplied almost endlessly among the almost 
endless divisions of modern caste ; but it will be 
observed that, however numerous and intricate such 
rules have become, they still affect a man chiefly in 
the four matters of marriage, food, professional occu- 
pation, and funeral rites. 

As to the first of these, intermarriage between 
different castes, which in Manu's time was permissible, 
is now altogether prohibited, and a kind of endogamy^ 
or marriage within a limited circle of caste-associates, 
leading to many objectionable results, is enforced, not 
only in each caste, but even generally in every sub- 
caste. For example, there are, it is said, eighty-four 
sub-castes of Brahmans in Gujarat which are not 
allowed to intermarr}^ and in many of these there are 
more males than females.^ 

In regard to the second point, of ' food,' the rules 
are more strict than in Manu's time, not merely as to 
the kind of food, but also as to the mode of its pre- 
paration, and the persons with whom it is eaten. All 
the higher classes agree in abstaining from animal 
food, the eating of which, although formerly permitted 
on certain occasions, is now regarded as a sin.' Again, 



^ The sub-castes of the Kayasths cannot intermarry excep 
with the highest of the twelve. 



156 IJlNDUIbM. 

all classes, high and low, hold it to be not only a sin, 
but an act of downright impiety, to eat the flesh of 
oxen.i Even to sit in the presence of an Englishman 
while engaged in eating beef, is not only sinful, but 
produces feelings of disgust far greater than an 
Englishman would feel in sitting next to a Chinaman 
while satisfying his appetite with a meal of boiled rats. 
The sacredness and inviolability of the cow and ox 
is in real truth a universally applicable test of modern 
orthodox Hinduism. 

So also it is not merely a breach of social propriety, 
but an offence against religion, for a man of high caste 
to eat food prepared by one of inferior caste ; or for 
members of different castes to eat together. ^ An im- 
portant distinction, however, in regard to eating toge- 
ther is made between food cooked with water and dry 
food. The former consists of boiled rice, dal, &c., or 
of coarse baked cakes, and this kind of food, which 
.contains no ghi, is eaten by all castes apart from 
each other, after washing their hands and feet, and 
removing part of their clothing. On the other 
hand, dry food comprehends not only all dry eatables 
and fruit, but also food cooked with ghi, as well as 

' Happily for the Hindus, the cow which supplies them with 
their only animal food— milk and butter— and the ox, which 
helps to till their ground, were declared sacred at an early 
period. Had it not been so^ this useful animal might have been 
exterminated in times of famine. What is now a superstition 
had its origin, like some other superstitions, in a wise foresight. 

^ Contrast St.. Paul, i Cor. v. ii — "Now I have written unto 
you not to keep company, if any man that is called a brother 
be a fornicator, or covetous, or an idolater, or a railer, or a 
^drunkard, or an extortioner; with such an one no not to eat." 



HINDUISM. 157 

sweetmeats ; and this may be eaten without remov- 
ing any garments, without washing, and in company 
with other castes. 

To understand the process by which such ideas 
have acquired strength, and become absolutely domi- 
nant, it may be well to bear in mind that every Hindu 
has a tendency to confuse the relationship between 
matter and spirit. Indian philosophers assert that 
matter is illusory, or that it has no real existence 
distinct from spirit, which is the only true entity.^ 
Hence a Hindu is convinced that inanimate material 
substances may be animated with powerful spiritual 
forces, and that such forces may exert a mysterious 
influence on the well-being of the immaterial part 
of his nature. It is therefore more important that 
water and food should be religiously than chemically 
pure. Every orthodox Hindu is perfectly persuaded 
that the dirtiest water, if taken from a sacred stream 
and applied to his body, either externally or inter- 
nally, wall purify his soul. Consequently he ^vill 
either bathe in it or drink it with avidity ; whereas 
the purest water is supposed to cause external and 
internal taint if accepted from a person of low 
caste. Similarly he believes that the purest food if 
touched by a person of low caste, or by a European 
{Mle'ccha) will, if eaten, contaminate his blood, and 
that such contamination will affect his character and 
prospects in this world and the next. Even the 
approach of a person of low caste, or no caste, or his 
shadow falling on food during its preparation, is 

^ There is no proper philosophical word in Sanskrit for 
matter, unless it hej'ada, opposed to ceiana spirit. 
M 2 



15S HINDUISM. 

thought to impart a taint which makes the most whole- 
some meal mifit to be eaten. 

With regard to the third point affected by caste, 
viz. professional pursuits, it should be observed that 
Brahmans alone are allowed free liberty of engaging 
in the occupations of other castes. Formerly only 
six acts were permitted to a strict Brahman, viz., 
repetition of the Veda {adhyayana), teaching it to 
others (adhydpajta), sacrificing {yaj'ana), assisting at 
sacrifices {yajana), giving {dd?ia), and receiving gifts 
{pratigraha). But even in Manu's time Brahmans 
might under certain circumstances become soldiers, 
or live by agriculture, keeping cattle, or trade (Manu, 
X. 80-82, loi, 102 ; ix. 319). In the present day they 
are often cooks, and they may engage in any indus- 
trial arts not involving contamination and degra- 
dation. 

The other castes are generally restricted to one 
occupation, but the names of the castes are not 
always a guide to the nature of their employments, 
these latter having sometimes in process of time 
become changed. 

Indeed it is by opening its arms to receive associa- 
tions of men engaged in the same art or trade that 
Hinduism, which is not in theory a proselyting creed, 
is continually extending itself. Any body of men, 
pursuing the same occupation, may form themselves 
into a kind of trade-union, and the Brahmans will 
admit them into the pale of their religion, the sole 
conditions being that they bind themselves not to 
intermarry with other castes, and accept the supremacy 
of the Brahmans and the sacredness of the cow or ox. 



HINDUISM. 159 

The fourth and last point affected by caste, is the 
performance of funeral rites, and of Sraddhas in honour 
of the dead. This interesting subject has been already 
noticed (see p. 65). We have only space to state further 
that considerable variation in the performance of such 
ceremonies prevails everywhere throughout India, and 
that all diversities of usage in this matter depend 
upon difference of caste, and of sub-caste, and even 
sometimes of groups of families. 

It only remains for us to enumerate some of the 
more important divisions and subdivisions of caste 
now found in India.^ 

To begin with the Brahmans who are still religiously 
above all other castes, and are still in their o^vn 
estimation, and in that of bigoted Hindus, the ' lords 
of creation ' by a kind of divine right. They are 
divided into ten principal tribes, thus : 

The northern division of Brahmans (sometimes called Cauda) 
has five tribes under it, according to the proper abode, viz., the 
Kdnyahibja (Kanauj), Sdrasvafa (North-west), Cauda (Bengal 
and Delhi), Maithila (North Behar), Utkala (Orissa). The 
southern division (called Drdvidd) has also five ; viz., the Maha- 
rashtra (Marathi districts), Taihnga (Telugu), Drdvida (Tamil), 
Karndta (Kamatic), and Curjara (Gujarat). The first tribe of 
the northern division, viz. the Kdnyakubja^ or Kanauj, is again 
numerously subdivided, and especially into one hundred and 
fifty-six tribes, of which one hundred are called Vdrendra, and 
fifty-six Rddha or Rdrh (fi-orn Radha, a district in the west of 
Bengal). Of the former, eight, and of the latter six, are re- 
garded as KulTna, or noble. The six Kulina Rarh tribes are 
Banerjea,Mukhurjea, C'aturjea, Garguli, Goshala, and Kanjalala, 



' The Rev. M. A. Sherring, of Benares, has published a 
useful work on this subject, which is my chief authority here. 



l6o HINDUISM. 

Again, all tribes of Brahmans are divided into 
Gotras or groups of families, according as they are 
supposed to be derived from one or other of the seven 
mythical sages, Bhrigu, Angiras, Atri, Visvamitra, 
(Kausika), Kasyapa, Vasishtha, and Agastya. These 
seven sets of Gotras are again subdivided into others 
too numerous to mention.^ 

Again, Brahmans are still further classified according 
to their supposed particular line of study, or extent of 
learning ; as, for example, whether a man knows the 
Rig-veda alone {Rlgveda-sdkhf), or the Yajur-veda 
( Yajurveda-sdkhi), or two Vedas {dvi-vedi, commonly 
called Dobe), or three Vedas {tri-vedi, commonly 
Tiveri), or four Vedas (f(7///r-z/<f<^J commonly Chaube), 
or some particular branch {S'dkhd) of one of the Vedas 
or its Sutras, or whether he is generally a learned man 
{Pandita). Other titles are the result of difference of 
occupation ; as, for instance, — 

The S'rotriya who performs Vedic ceremonies ; tlie Yajnika^ 
who performs the Sanskaras ; the Vaidika, who recites the 
Veda ; the Sdsii'i, who explains the law-books ; the Pattrdnika 
who recites the Puranas ; the yyotisha, who knows astronomy, 
and settles the calendar ; the Mahd-brdhmana or Mahd-pdtra 
(in some places called Acdrya), who arranges the ceremonies at 
times of death and mourning ; the Gangd-piitra, who sits near 
the Ganges and guides the pilgrims at Benares ; the Gayd-wdl, 
who superintends the pilgrims at Gaya ; the Praydg-wdl, who 
does the same at Allahabad ; the Ojha — exorciser of demons ; the 
last five of whom are Brahmans of an inferior order, and some 
are regarded with contempt by high-caste Brahmans. 

The Rajputs, who represent the ancient Kshatriya, 
military and royal caste, and come next to the Brah- 
mans, are also divided into numerous tribes ox clans^ 

' There are eighty-four subdivisions in Gujarat alonei. 



HI2<.DUISM. i6r 

joo numerous to be detailed. The original occupa- 
tion of this caste was twofold — that of governing and 
that of fighting, and even now many of the soldiers 
in our Sepoy {sipdhi) regiments are Rajputs, while even 
with the spread of British power, a few Rajput princes 
remain in India, and are permitted to retain a certain 
amount of kingly authority. We may instance as ex- 
amples, the Maharajas of Udaipur, Jodhpur, Jaipur^ 
Rewah, Bikanir. These claim to belong to the 
ancient Solar dynasty {S'nrya-vansd). Others, such as 
the Maharajas of Jaisalmir and Karowli, claim to be 
descended from the Lunar line {Soma-vansa). 

A less pure order of Kshatriyas are \ki^Jats or Jdts 
(not properly entitled to the name of Rajput), who 
are numerous in Rajputana and the Panjab. At the 
head of them comes the IMaharaja of Bhartpur. They 
are often great landowners, and often they and the 
Rajputs are simple agriculturists. They have nu- 
merous sub-divisions. Other clans allied to them 
are the Gujars, who are also generally agriculturists. 
Perhaps, however, one of the chief tribes of agricul- 
turists and tillers of the soil is a mixed class called 
Kumhl (or Kjinbi, or Kurmt, probably connected 
with Sanskrit root krish), extensively found over 
large districts of Hindustan proper and Central India. 

It is clear, therefore, that even Rajputs, Jats, and 
other modern castes may represent the ancient Vais- 
yas, who were originally the great class of agriculturists 
— the men who settled down (root vis) on the soil as 
husbandmen and cultivators. In fact, very few of the 

* They claim to be descended from Krishna, of liie Yadu 
branch of the Lunar line. 



l62 HINDUISM. 

present so-called Vai^ya caste have anything to do 
with agriculture. Some of them may be of tolerably 
pure descent, but they are generally merchants, shop- 
keepers, and traders, forming tribes called Banias or 
Baniyas (Sanskrit ba7j,ik)^ Bhatiyas, &c., many of 
whom are Vaishnavas, and many Jains in their creed. 
A large class of traders are called Khatris, which name 
probably shows that they are descended from the 
ancient Kshatriyas, and in certain privileges, such as 
that of wearing the sacred thread (commonly called 
/aiieo=yaJfiopavlta), and repeating the Gayatri and 
parts of the Veda, these Khatri traders who are often 
shopkeepers, dealers in cloth, silk, lace, &c., come 
nearer to the ancient Kshatriyas than the Rajputs, 
who claim to represent them.^ 

Other important classes of traders who claim Vaisya 
descent are the Agarwdlds of North-western and 
Central India (mostly Jains in religion), — the Oswdls 
of Gujarat (also found at Benares), the Ba?tdarwdrs, 
the Rastogis, the Banjdrds (wandering merchants), &c. 
The above mercantile and trading communities con- 
stitute the most enterprising and enlightened, as well 
as the best-educated of all the Indian castes (not ex- 
cepting the Brahmans), and it is from this source that 
a strong middle-class capable of creating and fostering 
a sound healthy public opinion — one of the greatest 
of India's needs — may one day be derived. 

Another enterprising and educated class are called 



' Rajput boys also wear the sacred cord, but they are not 
invested with it till marriage, whereas the Khatris receive it at 
eight years of age. In some parts of India, Kathaks (musicians), 
Siitars (carpenters), Sonars (goldsmiths), Bhatiyas and Kaseras 
(braziers), also wear the Janeo. 



HINDUISM. 163 

Kdyasthas or writers, who claim to have had a 
Brahman progenitor named C'itra-gupta. They come 
next in rank to the Vaisya or trading communities, and 
are by some affirmed to be pure Sudras, though they 
are much above those lower classes now called Sudras. 
The members of this caste (who are often vulgarly 
called Kaits) discharge most important duties in the 
government law-courts and other offices. They are 
lawyers, clerks, accountants, keepers of registers, &c., 
and are generally most intelligent and well-informed. 

There are at least twelve sub-castes of Kayasthas, di- 
vided in Bengal into eleven clans, named Go?,(ghos/ia), 
Bose {vasu), Mitra, De, Datt, Kor, Palit, Das, Sen, 
Singh, Guha. Furthermore, in Bengal there is a caste 
called Vaidya ox Baidya, 'medical' {=A?}ibasht/ia, 
Manu, X. 8), which comes next in rank to the Brahman. 

It will not be possible for us to enumerate all the 
castes formed by associations of men engaged in 
various employments, trades, arts, industrial and 
menial occupations. Some of the commonest are the 
following — 

Bhdts or C'arans, reciters of poetry at weddings, &c. (or in 
praise of Rajput princes, &c.); Kathaks, profeesional musi- 
cians (these play on various musical instruments and teach 
singing and dancing to prostitutes, for no respectable women 
either sing or dance, and even bad women seldom play on 
instruments) ; Sonars {stivartm-kd7'a), goldsmiths, a subdivision 
of whom are the Ratha-kdras, who claim to be a Brahman 
race ; Lohdrs [loka-kdra), blacksmiths ; BarJiaTs or Siitdrs 
{suira-dhdra), carpenters, sometimes employed as smiths ; Tantis 
{tantrin), weavers, who also manufacture Kim-khab (properly 
the Persian Kam-khwdb, and vulgarly Kinkob), or cloth inter- 
woven with gold and silver thread (there is also a weaver caste 
called Kolis) \ Koserds [kajisa-kdra), braziers or workers in 



164 HINDUISM. 

brass, copper, &c. ; Telis [tailin), oilmen ; Ktimbhdrs or Kum- 
hars {KwJibha-kdra), potters ; Dhohis {dhdvaka), washermen, 
(no Hindu, however poor, washes his own clothes ; this opera- 
tion must be performed by the DhobI caste, who are generally 
known by their doKkeys) ; Mails, gardeners ; Londns {lavana- 
kdnn), preparers of salt ; Rangdrts {ranga-kdrm), dyers ; 
Halwdls, confectioners ; DirzTs, tailors (who, when Muhamma- 
dans, are euphemistically called Khalifas or Caliphs) ; Nails 
{itdpita) or Hajjdms, barbers (who are also go-betweens in 
arranging marriages) ; Ahirs, herdsmen ; Kahdrs, palankin- 
bearers ; Malldhs, boatmen ; PdiTs, village watchmen. To 
the above may be added unclean castes, such as Cdmdr (carma- 
kdra) or MocTs, leather-cutters and shoemakers ; Mihtars or 
BhangTs, sweepers or scavengers ; Doms, cane chair-makers (these 
are the lowest of the low ; they are often employed as street- 
sweepers and in furnishing wood and fire for the burnmg of 
dead bodies) ; Killts, labourers ; this last name is rather appli- 
cable to any labourer than to a caste, being derived from a 
Dravidian word, and meaning * one who receives (daily) wages 
or kuli. ' 

It is satisfactory to know that, although it is too 
true that caste is still the very life and soul of Hindu- 
ism, and although this very caste is not without 
certain good points and advantages, yet some of its 
most vexatious rules are gradually giving way under 
the pressure of steam, electricity, and European influ- 
ence. Many years ago a Brahman who accidentally 
touched leather would have had to choose between 
public expiation or degradation, and expulsion from 
caste, whereas in 1870 a Uriya Brahman held the 
post of sub-inspector of police in Puri itself, within 
the very shadow of Jagannath, although a leather 
belt formed part of his uniform."^ 



• Hunter's Orissa, vol. ii. p. 147, 



HINDUISM. I6S 



CHAPTER XII. 

MODERN IDOL-WORSHIP, SACRED OBJECTS, HOLY 
PLACES AND TIMES. 

No account of Hinduism can pretend to complete- 
ness without some notice of its modern idol-worship, 
and of its numerous minor deities, semi-divine beings, 
consecrated objects, holy places, and seasons. 

Hinduism assigns no limit to the ever-increasing 
number of its deified existences, and we may safely 
affirm that there is no country in the world where so 
many shrines dedicated to gods and goddesses under 
different forms, images, symbols, and names, meet 
the eye as in India. In large towns temples are 
reckoned by hundreds, and even by thousands. 

First, there are temples to the principal deities 
described in the previous chapters of this volume — 
to Siva and his symbol (the linga), to Vishnu, to 
Krishna, to Rama, and to their respective wives — 
Durga, Lakshmi, Radha, Sita, under different forms 
and names. Then, there are occasional shrines 
containing images of divine heroes, such as Yudhi- 
shthira, Arjuna, Bhima (see p. 112), and of divine 
Rishis, such as Bharadvaja, &e. Ever)^vhere are 
seen images of the god Ganesa, or Ganapati, son 
of Siva and Durga. He is lord of the troops of 
mischievous and malignant imps who are supposed 
to cause obstacles and difficulties, and is therefore 



l66 HINDUISM. 

invoked at the commencement of all undertakings. 
His bloated, dwarfish, and distorted appearance, 
which is like that of the Ganas of Siva over whom 
he presides, indicates sensuality and love of good 
living, while his elephant's head is said to typify 
a combination of wisdom, or, perhaps, rather, of 
cunning and sagacity. 

Again, shrines to the other son of Siva, Skanda or 
Karttikeya, the leader or general of Siva's armies or 
troops of demons, are very common in the sou.h of 
India. He is there called Subrahmanya. 

Next are found all over India shrines dedicated to 
the Monkey-god Hanuman, the devoted ally of the 
great Rama in his conflict with the Rakshasas of the 
South of India (see p. in). His images are smeared 
with the sacred colour vermilion, to denote the esti- 
mation in which he is held, and the universal admira- 
tion of his devotion as a model faithful servant. After 
the great war, and the subjugation of Ravana, king 
of Ceylon, Rama is said to have made over to Hanu- 
man a great portion of the Deccan {i.e. Dakshina, or 
south country, sometimes called Rama-kshetra, and 
sometimes Dandakaranya), of which Hanuman and 
his followers became the principal colonizers. Hence 
idols of the monkey-leader are found in (and often 
outside) every village of the Marathi country. 

Then in some towns, such as Benares, besides the 
principal shrines there are temples of the Nava- 
grahdh, nine planets, that is of the Sun-god (Surya), 
Moon-god (C'andra), Mars, Mercury, Jupiter, Venus, 
Saturn, Rahu (dragon's-head, or ascending node of 
the moon, and cause of eclipses), and Ketu (dragon's- 



HINDUISM. 167 

tail), which, with the Nakshatras (see p. 180), consti- 
tute a formidable galaxy of deities whose favour must 
be conciliated before marriages and other auspicious 
events can be successfully accompHshed, — with many 
special shrines, such as those of Anna-purTjd, the 
goddess of plenty ; S'Uald, the goddess of small-pox \ 
Bhairava-ndtha or Danda-pdni, a sort of deified police 
magistrate, and others too numerous to describe. 

Again, carved stone images of the following well- 
known deities of the Hindu Pantheon are not un- 
common : — 

Indra, god of the atmosphere ; Varuna, god of the ocean ; 
Kiivera, god of wealth ; Kama, god of love ; Bala-rdma, the 
Hindu Hercules ; Parahc-rdma, a deified Brahman who is 
especially connected with the Konkan. (called from him Para- 
surdma-ksheb-a) and sometimes regarded as the god of the 
Konkanastha Brahmans ; Yama, god and judge of the dead. 
But shrines dedicated to their honour are unusual.^ 
Nor are certain groups {gana) of gods honoured 
^^■ith special shrines. The following, however, are 
reverenced : — 

The ten Visva-devas ; the eight Vasus (forms of fire or light) ; 
the eleven Rudras (see p. 25) ; the twelve Adiiyas (see p. 23) ; 
the Sddhyas, celestial beings of peculiar purity ; the Siddhas, 
semi-divine beings of great perfection. 

But the idol-worship of the towns by no means 
represents the common cultus of the rural districts of 
India. No village is too small, no locality too little 
frequented to be without its own peculiar religious 
symbols. At the tops of hills, in groves, on every 



' I have never met with shrines to Tndra, Varuna, Kuvera, 
or Yama, though their images often stand in the galleries of 
temples, or are carved on the xvalls of caves. 



1 68 HINDUISM. 

high place, and almost under every rock and stately 
tree, are to be seen, if not finished temples, at least 
rough idols or simple blocks of stone and wood, con- 
secrated to local deities by patches of red paint, and 
bearing witness to the belief of the inhabitants in the 
presence of presiding gods and goddesses. There 
is, in truth, a strange mixture of aboriginal fetishism 
with Brahmanical pantheism in the popular religion 
of the mass of the Hindu people. Everything 
great and useful — everything strange, monstrous, 
and unusual, whether good or evil, is held to be 
permeated by the presence of divinity. It is not 
merely all the mighty phenomena and forces of the 
universe — all the most striking manifestations of 
almighty energy — that excite the awe and attract the 
reverence of the ordinary Hindu. There is not an 
object in earth or heaven which he is not prepared 
to worship — rocks, stocks, and stones, trees, pools, 
and rivers, his own implements of trade,^ the ani- 
mals he finds most useful, the noxious reptiles he 
fears, men remarkable for any extraordinary quali- 
ties, — for great valour, sanctity, virtue, or even vice ; 
good and evil demons, ghosts and goblins, the spirits 
of departed ancestors, an infinite number of semi- 
human, semi-divine existences — inhabitants of the 
seven upper and the seven lower worlds — each and 
'^all of these come in for a share of divine honour or a 
tribute of more or less adoration. Verily, the 
Hindu Pantheon has a place for everybody and 

' Every trade, profession, and calling has its tutelary divinity. 
Even the Thugs claimed the goddess Kali as their presiding 
goddess, in whose honour they murdered their victims. 



HINDUISM. 169 

everything. The deities already described are merely 
the occupants of its most conspicuous niches. To 
attempt an exhaustive enumeration of its minor gods 
and goddesses would be a hopeless task, and to count 
the ever-multiplying army of its martyrs, saints, and 
sages, would be a simple impossibility. New shrines 
are continually springing up to receive the remains of 
holy men or ascetics — examples of extraordinary sanc- 
tity, or of some peculiar manifestation of the divine 
energy — who, after death, are canonized and deified.^ 

With regard to animals, plants, and stones, we can 
only indicate those most generally revered. 

Of all animals the cow is the most sacred. It 
typifies the all-yielding earth. It is the chief source 
of nourishment of every Hindu. All agricultural 
labour depends on the ox, for no such animal as a 
cart-horse exists in India. There is a typical ' cow 
of plenty' {Kdina-dherm) — supposed to yield all de- 
sired objects — images of which are commonly sold in 
the bazaars, and bought as objects of reverence; and 
the letting loose of a bull {vrishcisarga) — properly 
stamped with the symbol of Siva — in sacred cities 
like Benares and Gaya, that it may be tended and re- 
verenced by pious persons, is a highly meritorious act. 
Serpents, also, are divine animals \ they are 
emblematical of eternity, and are often associated 
with the gods, especially Siva. Moreover, a curious 

* Such men are generally buried, not burnt, and their tombs 
resorted to by hundreds of pilgrims. Tombs containing the 
ashes of Satis, or women who have burnt themselves with the 
bodies of their deceased husbands, are also common everywhere 
in India, and greatly revered. 



IJO HINDUISM. 

race of serpents, half human, half divine, called 
Nagas, is supposed to exist in the regions under the 
earth. They are ruled over by three principal ser- 
pents, named S'es/ia, Vdsiiki, and Takshaka. Ac- 
cording to some, this serpent race, however fabulous^ 
points to the former existence of a class of beings to 
which the serpent that tempted Eve may have 
belonged, before the sentence was pronounced by 
which it became a creeping reptile. 

Monkeys, a whole army of which aided Rama in 
his conquest of Ceylon, are, of course, among the 
most sacred of all animals. They are inviolable, and 
never under any circumstances to be molested. 
Swarms of them are encouraged to infest the vicinity 
of temples and consecrated buildings, where they sub- 
sist on the food offered to them by pious worshippers. 

But not only animal life, plant life also is held 
sacred, because thought to be permeated by divinity. 
Perhaps the Tulsi plant (properly Tulasi), or holy Basil, 
is the most revered. It is sacred to Vishnu, and 
even prayiers are addressed to it, as if it were itself a 
goddess. The marriage of the Tulsi with the god 
Vishnu, or Krishna, is celebrated in every Hindu 
family in the month Karttik. 

So also the Vilva (Bel) tree, with its triple leaf, is 
sacred to Siva, with his triple functions. 

The Pipal tree (Ficus religiosd) is another divine 
tree. It is regarded as occupied by the god Brahma, 
and is sometimes invested with the sacred thread as 
if it were a real person. All the ceremonies o\ 
Upanayana are then performed over it. 

No native will willingly cut down a Tulsi plant, cr 



HINDUISM. 171 

a Pipal tree, and the planting of these is always con- 
sidered a religious and meritorious act. 

The Asoka shrub is also sacred to Siva ; the DQrba 
grass to Ganes'a; the Banyan tree to Kala or Time; the 
Arka plant to Surya or the Sun. The Sami or Acacia 
is a goddess on her own account, and is supposed to 
contain fire. The Custard-apple is called the fruit of 
Sita {sitd-pJiala). The Kusa is a most sacred grass. 

Then as to stones. Black stones, called Salagrama, 
with markings like those of the ammonite, are wor- 
shipped by the principal sects of Vaishnavas, as re- 
presenting Vishnu ; also white agates as typifying ^iva, 
and red stones as symbolizing Ganes'a. Certain coral- 
like formations have also their religious value, and 
are revered as significant of particular attributes of the 
deity. The Mahatmya or divine glory of these stones 
is celebrated in the Padma-purana. 

We pass on now to sacred places. A Hindu's 
craving for some holy place of pilgrimage {tlrtha), to 
which he may hope to resort for a special blessing 
more than once in a lifetime, is not satisfied by a 
single Jerusalem, or a single Mecca. 

India is studded with an increasing number of 
sacred places, from the very soil of which are supposed 
to exhale sanctity, salvation, and beatitude for the 
benefit of thousands of pilgrims who annually visit 
them. Pilgrimages to such spots {tirtha-ydtra) are 
generally performed as acts of faith and devotion for 
the accumulation of religious merit, or to atone for 
sins.^ Sometimes, however, they are undertaken for 

* The pilgrims are often branded on their arms with a mark 
chap) of the sank/ia, gadd, caki-a, fadma^ khtta or dhanus, to 

N 



172 HINDUISM. 

the performance of Sraddha ceremonies in honour of 
departed ancestors, or for the recovery of some sick 
person,^ or to convey the burnt remains of the bodies 
of deceased relations to some sacred shrine near a 
river, the object being to scatter the ashes on the 
purifying waters. 

The multiplication of places of pilgrimage pro- 
ceeded very rapidly. Pwivers, as sources of fertility 
and purification, were at an early date invested with a 
sacred character. Every great river was supposed to 
be permeated with the divine essence, and its waters 
held to cleanse from all moral guilt and contamination. 
And as the Ganges was the most majestic, so it soon 
became the holiest and most revered of all rivers. 
No sin too heinous to be removed, no character too 
black to be washed clean by its waters. Hence the 
countless temples with flights of steps lining its banks , 
hence the array of priests called ' Sons of the Ganges,' 
sitting on the edge of its streams, ready to aid the 
ablutions of conscience-stricken bathers, and stamp 
them as white-washed when they emerge from its 
waters. Hence also the constant traffic carried on in 
transporting Ganges water in small bottles to all parts 
of the country. 

The confluence of the Ganges with the Jumna 



serve as an evidence of their having accomphshed a particular pil- 
grimage. At Dvaraka nearly 5,000 persons are annually branded. 
' Colonel Sleenian records the case of a family of four persons 
who walked about fourteen hundred miles with a sick boy, 
cariying with them bottles of Ganges whter to bathe the idol of 
Jagannath in Orissa. The change of air cured the child, but the 
family of course attributed the cure to the gratitude of the idol. 



HINDUISM. 173 

(Yamuna) and Sarasvati (supposed to flow under- 
ground) at Allahabad (Prayaga) is one of the most 
hallowed spots in all India. These three sacred 
streams form a sort of Tri-murti, or trinity of rivers, 
often personified as goddesses, and called Mothers. 
Then other rivers, such as the Goddvari (also called 
Goda and Vriddha-ganga), Narbadd (properly Nar- 
mada, also called Reva), Tapti (properly Tapati, also 
called Tapi), Sdhannatl (properly Sabhramati), Kistjia 
(properly Krishna), Vend, Sat'ayu, Tiuiga-hhadrd, and 
Kdven, became rivals of this origi;nal sacred triad. 
Chapters, called Mahatmyas, extolling the virtue of 
their waters, and describing their consecration by 
gods and sages, were inserted in the Puranas. Thus,, 
the sacredness of the . Godavari is said to have been 
revealed by Rama (to the Rishi Gotama), and that of 
the Sabarmati by Kas'yapa. 

And here we may note that the whole length of 
the banks of all the chief rivers of India, from their 
source to the sea, is regarded as holy ground. To 
follow their course on foot is considered a highly 
meritorious act. A pilgrim, for example, sets out 
from the source of the Ganges, at Gangotri, and 
walks by the left bank of the river to its mouth, at 
Ganga-sagara ; then, turning round, he proceeds by^ 
the right side back to Gangotri, whence he departed. 
This is called Pradakshina, or Parikrama of the 
river, and takes six years to accomplish. In the same 
way a pilgrim starts from the source of the Narbada,. 
at Amara-kantak, — a peak of the Vindhya chain in 
Gondwana, — and walks to the mouth, near Broach,, 
and back. This takes three years. The rivers Goda- 
vari and Krishna require only two years for the same 



174 HINDUISM. 

process. Of course, the merit accumulated is in 
proportion to the time occupied in the pilgrimage 
and the sacredness of the ground traversed. 

But if rivers were believed to be pervaded by 
divinity, and their waters held capable of purging 
from all sin, it will not be matter of wonder that holy 
cities, towns, and bathing-places {tlrthas) rapidly 
arose on their banks. It was not difficult to stamp 
such places with a sacred character. One or other of 
the gods was described as connecting himself with 
particular localities. Thus, the sanctity of Benares, 
on the Ganges, was supposed to have been communi- 
cated by the god Siva to his son Skanda (as recorded 
in the Kasi-khanda of the Skanda-purana), and the 
whole town therefore became sacred to the special 
worship of Siva, who is alleged to have gone through 
severe austerities in the neighbourhood. 

This celebrated city of Benares, which has a popula- 
tion of about 200,000, out of which at least 25,000 
are Brahmans, was probably one of the first to ac- 
quire a fame for sanctity, and it has always main- 
tained its reputation as the most sacred spot in all 
India. Here, in this fortress of Hinduism, Brahmanism 
displays itself in all its plenitude and power. Here 
the degrading effect of idolatry is visibly demon- 
strated as it is nowhere else except in the extreme 
south of India. Here temples, idols, and symbols, 
sacred wells, springs, and pools, are multiplied be- 
yond all calculation. Here every particle of ground 
is believed to be hallowed, and the very air holy. 
The number of temples is at least two thousand, 
not counting innumerable smaller shrines. In the 
principal temple of Siva, called Visvesvara, are col- 



HINDUISM. 



175 



lected in one spot several thousand idols and sym- 
bols, the whole number scattered throughout the city 
being, it is thought, at least half a million. 

Benares, indeed, must always be regarded as the 
Hindu's Jerusalem. The desire of a pious man's 
life is to accomplish at least one pilgrimage to what 
he regards as a portion of heaven let do^\^l upon 
earth ; and if he can die within the holy circuit of 
the Pancakosi, stretching with a radius of ten miles 
around the city, — nay, if any human being die there, 
be he Asiatic or European,— no previously-incurred 
guilt, however heinous, can prevent his attainment of 
celestial bliss. 

For a long time the river Ganges and the city 
Benares occupied a position far above all other 
rivers and all other sacred cities ; but as the Ar^-ans 
spread themselves from the north-west, eastward, 
westward, and southward, the Brahmans who settled 
do\\Ti in other places naturally became jealous of the 
monopoly enjoyed by those in Benares. If any 
natural phenomenon — a volcanic crater, a fissure in 
the soil, a hot spring, a cavern or rock of peculiar 
shape — existed anywhere, it was pressed into the ser- 
vice, and made to subserve the purposes of the priests. 
A kind of free trade in the invention of myths for the 
consecration of particular spots was thus introduced. 
For instance, in Kattiwar there is a spring, the water 
of which is said to have been formed from the per- 
spiration of Krishna's body. So also many legends 
were connected with the great idol Jagan-nath at Puri, 
in Orissa, which is said to contain Krishna's bones. 

New Mahatmyas were then composed and inserted 
in some of the Puranas (often in the Skanda), making 



1.76 HINDUISM. 

a god or holy sage reveal and extol the praises of a 
particular spot intended to be elevated to a high 
position among the consecrated places of India. 

Place after place was declared consecrated ground. 
Prayaga at Allahabad and Gaya probably achieved a 
reputation for sanctity soon after Benares. Preachers 
were sent all over India to recite the IMahatmyas 
of innumerable rival localities. 

To this day the priests of Benares, Gaya, Allahabad, 
and other sacred places send agents to every town and 
large railway station in India, who are commissioned 
to persuade pilgrims to visit their own shrines. When 
once a stream of pilgrims sets in a particular direction, 
it very soon gathers strength. One devotee follows 
•another, and in this manner the fame of many new 
places is established. Pandharpur, in the Dekhan, 
which contains a shrine of Krishna called Vithoba 
(celebrated by the IMarathi poet Tukaram), is a city 
which has in this way risen quite recently to importance. 

At nearly every sacred place the number of shrines 
to be visited and of ceremonies to be performed oc- 
cupies many days, and no pilgrim can go through all 
the duties required of him without the aid of the 
Brahmans attached to the locality, who exact fees 
even from the poorest, and receive large sums of 
money from rich persons. At some sacred places 
religious gatherings occur every year, at others after 
certain intervals. The fullest often take place once 
in twelve years, when the planet Jupiter enters a par- 
ticular sign,^ on which occasion the concourse of 



' For example, at Haridwar, when Jupiter enters the sign 



HINDUISM. 177 

people is so enormous that loss of life sometimes 
happens from overcrowding. Many think to enhance 
the merit of their pilgrimages by imposing on them- 
selves the most toilsome tasks on the road ; such, 
for example, as advancing towards their destination 
by continued prostrations of the body, or, as it is 
termed, 'measuring their lengths' for hundreds of 
miles. 

In some ancient texts only seven principal holy 
towns are enumerated ; viz. : — 

Kdsi or Benares ; Mathiird or Muttra, the capital of Kansa, 
conquered by Krishna, on the Jumna, near Agra ; Haridwdr 
(or Maya), where the Ganges, descending from the Himalayas, 
first enters the plains ; Ayodhyd (now Fyzabad), the ancient 
capital of Rama-candra, near Lucknow ; Dvdrakd, the city 01 
Kiishna, in Gujarat ; Avantikd or Oujein ; and KdiicT ox Con- 
jevaram (i.e. Kdncl-puram), near Madras.' 

Again, in others, the chief sacred cities are de- 
clared to be only three — Benares^ resorted to for self- 
mortification ; Praydga (Allahabad) for religious 
shaving ; and Gayd for S'rdddha ceremonies. At the 
last place a footprint of Vishnu is the great object of 
adoration. 

Seven Sangamas, or river confluences — all called 
Prayagas — are pronounced especially sacred : — 

That of the Ganges and Jumna, called Bhatta-prayaga ; ot 
the Leti and Alaka-nanda, called Vishnu-prayaga ; of the 



Aquarius {Kumbha) ^ at Prayaga when he enters Makaj-a, and at 
Tryambak when he enters Leo [Shiha). 

' There are said to be two Kancis, one called Vishnu-kancT, 
and the other S'iva-kanci. They are merely the two great 
temples at either end of Conjevaram = KancI-puram. 



178 HINDUISM. 

Alaka-nanda and Nanda, called Nanda-prayaga ; of the Pindar 
and Alaka-nanda, called Karna-prayaga ; of the Mandakim and 
Alaka-nanda, called Rudra-prayaga ; of the BhaglrathI and 
MandakinI, called Deva-prayaga ; of the Krishna and Vena, 
called Dakshina-prayaga (in the Dekhan). 

I'he sources, and sometimes the mouths, of these 
and other rivers are ahvays esteemed places of pil- 
grimage ; for example : — 

Gangotri, the source of the Ganges ; yumfiotn, of the Jnmna ; 
Af?iara-kantak, in the Vindhya, of the Narbada: Mahdbaiesva7\ 
of the Krishna and Vena (Kistna) ; TdpT-miila, of the Tanti, in 
Berar ; Gangd-sdgara, the mouth of the Ganges. 

Then there are four specially holy Dhamas or 
residence of deities, viz. : — 

jfagan-ndth, at Purl, in Oiissa ; Dvdrakd ' (also one of the 
seven holy towns before named) ; BadarT-keddj-a or Badart- 
ndth, in the .Himalayas (one of the sources of the Ganges) ; 
Rdmelvara, on an island six miles from land, between India 
and Ceylon. 

And twelve sacred places containing celebrated 
Lingas of Siva, viz. : — 

Somndth, in Kattiwar; Alallikdrjiina^ on the 'Sri-saila moun- 
tain, in the Kamatic ; Mahdkdla or Mahdkdleh>ara. in Ujjayini 
(Oujein), to the north of Indore ; Om-kdra, on an island in the 
river Narbada ; Keddra or Keddreh<aj-a, in the Himalayas ; 
Bhuna-hnkara, at the source of the river Bhima, near Punah ; 
Viivandth, in Benares ; Tryavibaka-ndih ^ near Nasik, on 
the Godavarl ; Vaidya-ndth (or Vaijanath), about 100 miles 
from Ahmednagar ; Ndgandth, or Ndgesvara, beyond Ahmed- 



' There are two Dvarakas at the distance of fourteen miles 
from each other ; one is called GomatI Dvaraka, and the other, 
Beyt. "When the idol was removed from the former to Dakore, 
a new one was placed in Gomati by S'ankaracarya, who has a 
monastery there, while Vallabhacarya gave an idol to Beyt. 



HINDUISM. 179- 

nagar in the Nizam's dominions ; Rdinaiiath or Rdmesvara^ 
near Adam's Bridge, between India and Ceylon ; Ghrishnei- 
vara, at Ellora, near Aurungabad. 

Five divine lakes (Saroz'ara), or holy tanks, are 
also enumerated ; viz. : — 

N'drdyana, in Kutch ; Piishkara, in Ajmir ; Bmdu, in Sidh- 
pur, about 60 miles from Ahmedabad ; Patupd, in the Kar- 
natic, and Mdnasa (commonly called Mana-sarovar), in the 
Himalaya mountains. 

There are also four celebrated shrines of god- 
desses :— 

Mahd - lakshtJii, at Kolapur ; Bhavdni, near Sholapur ; 
Renukd, at Matapura ; Yogeh>ar7, about 80 miles from Ah 
mednagar. 

And four monasteries of Sankaracarya, one at 
each extremity of India, viz. : — 

S'dradd-mat/ia, at Gomati Dvaraka ; Sringeri-matha, in the 
Kamatic, near Mysore; Jyotir-jjiatha, near Badarl-nath, one of 
the sources of the Ganges ; and Vard/iana-matka, at Purl. 

A few other well-kno^vn sacred places are : — 

C'itra-kote, near Allahabad, the first abode of Rama and 
Lakshmana after their exile from Ayodhya ; Frabhdsa, near 
Somnath and Dvaraka, where Krishna's kinsmen, the Yadavas, 
destroyed themselves ; S'rl-ndth or Ndih-dvdr, near Udaipur 
(the temple of which has an idol from Govardhana) ; Amara- 
udth, in Kasmir; yvdld-mukht, a small volcanic crater near 
Amritsar, in the Panjab ; Ddkore, in Gujarat, celebrated for the 
idol of Krishna (called Ran-chor) brought from Dvaraka. 

Ndsik, on the Godavari, where Lakshmana cut off the nose 
of the demon S'urpa-nakha ; Kiirii-ksheira, near Delhi, where 
the great battles of the Mahabharata were fought ; Kdja-i>ur, 
near C'itra-kote, the residence of Tulsi-das ; Gddhadd, in Katti- 
war, where the body of Svami-Narayana (see p. 145) was 



i8o HINDUISM. 

burnt ; Pdlitdna (or S atrunjaya), a sacred hill of the Jains in 
Kattivvar; Aviritsar^ in the Panjab, the sacred city of the Sikhs. 



It appears, then, that almost the whole circle of 
the sciences — zoology, botany, mineralogy, and geo- 
graphy — is in India taken into the service of religious 
superstition. Even astronomy and chronology are 
utilized in the same way. If a full moon fall on a 
Monday, this is an astronomical coincidence that must 
be by all means turned to the best account. It is a 
moment particularly favourable for charitable acts ; 
and a gift of one rupee at such a time is equal to one 
thousand at any other. 

The Nakshatras — twenty-seven constellations which 
in Indian astronomy separate the moon's path into 
twenty-seven divisions, as the signs of the Zodiac do 
that of the sun into twelve — are regarded as deities 
who exert a vast influence on the destiny of men, not 
only at the moment of their entrance into the world, 
but during their whole passage through it. These 
formidable constellations are consulted at births, mar- 
riages, and on all occasions of family rejoicing, distress, 
or calamity. No one undertakes a journey or any 
important matter except on days which the aspect of 
the Nakshatras renders lucky and auspicious. If any 
constellation is unfavourable, it must by all means be 
propitiated by a ceremony called S'djiti. 

Much the same may be said of the supposed influ- 
ence of the nine Grahas (see p. i66), all regarded as 
planets. Similarly it is held that mysterious attributes 
and properties attach to every month of the year and 
every day of the month. The Mahatmyas, or reli- 



HINDUISM. l8l 

gious excellence and value of months, such as Sra- 
vana, Vaisakha, and especially of the intercalary 
month (called Adhika-mdsa, Mala-vidsa, Picrushot- 
tama-mdsa)^ have all been written and inserted in the 
Puranas. When the intercalary month comes round 
every third year, numerous preachers make the most 
of their opportunity, and read its Mahatmya in the 
streets of large towns, hoping thereby to stimulate the 
generosity of the people, and extract large charitable 
gifts. Certain sacred days at the changes of the moon 
are called ' Parvans,' and a glance at the Hindu ca- 
lendar is sufficient to show that no nation upon earth 
rejoices in a longer list of holidays and festivals 
{utsava), qualified by fasts [iipavdsd), vigils (Jagaraiia) 
and seasons of mortification. Most of these festivals 
and fasts are fixed for certain Tithis or lunar days, 
each lunation or period of rather more than twenty- 
seven days being divided into thirty Tithis, fifteen of 
which during the moon's increase constitute the light 
half of the month, and the other fifteen the dark half. 
Some festivals, however, are regulated by the supposed 
motions of the sun. The festivals and fasts most 
commonly observed throughout the year may be enu- 
merated as. follows : — 

I. Makara-saiikrdnti^ or the commencement of the 
sun's northern course in the heavens. On this day, 
the first of the solar month Magha (about the begin- 
ning of January), the sun having reached the most 
southern point of the ecliptic (according to the Hindu 
reckoning), begins his northern course {uttardyaiid), 
which he continues till the end of June. It is a 
period of great rejoicing everywhere, and especially 



lS2 HINDUISM. 

at Piayaga (Allahabad), the confluence of the Jumna 
and Ganges, where a celebrated Mela (religious fair) 
takes place. In the South of India this festival is 
commonly called ' Pongal,' and is the commencement 
of the Tamil year. Cattle are decorated with gar- 
lands, led about in procession, treated with especial 
veneration and exempted from labour. 

2. S'rJ-panca7?iij on the 5th of the light half of Magha 
(January-February), in honour of Sarasvati (called Sri), 
goddess of arts and learning. Implements of writing 
and books are therefore worshipped (see pp. 90, 91). 

3. S'iva-rdtri, in honour of Siva, held on the 14th 
of the dark half of Magha (about the middle or end of 
February). A strict fast is observed during the day, and 
a vigil held at night, when the Linga is worshipped. 
At this season many pilgrims flock to the places dedi- 
cated to Siva. 

4. Holi, now generally identified with the Dola- 
yatrd or swinging festival, celebrated as a kind of 
Hindu Saturnalia or Carnival, and very popular all 
over India. It commences about ten days before 
the full moon of Phalguna (February-March), but is 
usually only observed for the last three or four days, 
terminating with the full moon. During -this festival 
boys dance about in the streets, and the inhabitants 
of the houses sprinkle the passers-by with red or 
yellow powder, or play practical jokes. Towards the 
close of the festival a bonfire is lighted and games 
(representing the frolics of the young Krishna) take 
place round the expiring embers. 

5. Rdma-navaml^ the birthday of Rama-candra, on 
the 9th of the light half of the month C'aitra (March- 



HINDUISM. 183 

April), kept by some as a strict fast. The temples of 
Rama are illuminated, and the image of Rama adorned 
with costly ornaments. The Ramayana is read in 
the temples, and Nautches are kept up during the 
night. 

6. Naga-pan'cam'i, a festival in honour of the Nagas 
(see p. 169), on the 5th day of the light half of 
Sravana. 

7. Krishna JanmashtafHi, the birthday of Krishna, 
on the 8th of the dark half of the month Bhadra, 
and in the south of Sravana (July- August), one ot 
the greatest of all Hindu holidays. The months of 
the Northern and Southern Brahraans differ in 
Krishna-paksha. 

8. Ganesa-'cafurfhi, the birthday of Ganesa, on the 
4th of the light half of the month Bhadra (August- 
September). Clay figures of the deity are made, and 
after being worshipped for two days, or in some cases 
ten days, are thrown into water. 

9. Diu-gd-puja, or N'ava-rdtn, commencing on the 
ist, and ending on the loth day of the light half of 
Asvina (September-October). This festival, cele- 
brated in Bengal and other parts of India, is supposed 
to be connected with the autumnal equinox. It is held 
in commemoration of the victory of Durga, wife of Siva, 
over a buffalo-headed demon {Mahishdsur). Her image 
is worshipped for nine days, and then cast into the water. 
The tenth day is called Vijaya-dasaim^ or Dasa-hard, 

10. Rmna-llld. — On the day when the Bengalis 
assign their images of Durga to the waters, the 
Hindus "of other provinces celebrate the Rama-lila, 
a dramatic representation of the carrying off of Sita, 



184 HINDUISM. 

concluding Avith the death of Ravana (see p. iii), of 
which the 9th day of the Durga-puja is the anniversary. 

11. Dtpdll or Dlvdll (properly Dipdvali), ' the 
feast of lamps,' on the last two days of the dark half 
of Asvina (September-October), and the new moon 
and four following days of Karttika, in honour of 
Vishnu's wife Lakshmi, and of Siva's wife Bhavani 
(Parvati). 

12. Kdrtttka-pun,iimd,\hQ. full moon of the month 
Karttika (October-November), a festival kept in honour 
of Siva's victory over the demon Tripurasura. 

We must now bring our account of Hinduism to a 
close. We cannot hope to have succeeded in un 
ravelling all the knots of an intricate subject. Suffi- 
cient at least has been \vritten to show that the 
Hindus are a profoundly religious people. A religion 
of some kind they must have — a religion which will 
stir the depths of the heart, and give room for the 
exercise of faith and love. 

The ancient fortress of Hinduism, with its four 
sides. Monotheism, Pantheism, Dualism, and Poly- 
theism, is everywhere tottering and ready to fall. 
Let not Christianity undervalue its obligations to 
education, which has, so to speak, served as a mighty 
lever for upheaving the massive fabric of the Hindu 
system. But the education we are giving in India 
has little effect on the heart, and has certainly no 
power to regenerate it. What then is to become of 
the masses of the people when their ancient faith 
sinks from beneath their feet ? Only two other homes 
are before them — a cold theism and a heart-stirring 
Christianity. They are both already established in 



HINDUISM. 185: 

the soil of India. But Christianity is spreading its. 
boundaries more widely, and striking its foundations 
more deeply. It appeals directly to the heart. It is 
exactly suited to the needs of the masses of the people 
of India, In Christianity alone is their true home. 

But much has still to be done to convince them of 
this. Of course, too much stress can scarcely be laid 
on the degrading tendencies of idolatry. Yet there 
are three points which ought to be still more forcibly 
insisted on by our missionaries as distinguishing 
Christianity from all other systems; first, the co- 
ordination and union of the human and divine, of 
man's work and God's work, as exhibited, for 
example, in our Sacred Scriptures; secondly, the 
everlasting permanence and even intensification of 
the personality of man as distinct from the per- 
sonality of God; thirdly, the perfect personality of God 
as revealed in Christ. As to the third point, it should 
be made quite clear that Muhammadans, Hindus, 
Buddhists, and Jains have nothing parallel to the great 
truth of the perfect personality of the God-man Christ. 

Let the proselyting Muslim proudly declare, when 
confronted with the opponents of his o^\ti creed in 
the bazaars of India, that he will meet his foe -with 
no other weapon than the sword of the Kuran. 
Let the Hindu philosopher calmly intrench him- 
self behind the Pantheism of his Veda, and the 
theistical Brahma behind the strength of his' dogma 
that ' God is one,' while the infidel Jain looks 
down with serene apathy from the heights of his 
atheism on a struggle to which he is indifferent. 
Then let the Christian missionary, ^\dthout despising 



l86 HINDUISM. 

\ 

the formidable Goliaths to which he is oi-posed, but "^ 
with the quiet confidence of a David in the strength / 
of his own weapons, go forth fearlessly with the \ 
simple sling and stone of the Gospel in his hand and ' 
do battle with his enemies, not forgetting to use the 
Sword of the Spirit with its nine irresistible thrusts — 
love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, 
faith, meekness, temperance. 

Much ground, indeed, has been already won by 
the soldiers of the Cross ; but to secure a more 
hopeful advance of Christianity throughout India, a 
large accession to the missionary ranks of w^ell- 
trained men, thoroughly conversant with the sys- 
tems against which they have to contend, and 
prepared to /h'e as well as preach the simple story 
of the Gospel of Christ, is urgently needed. And 
far more than this is needed for the complete 
triumph of God's truth in India. Nothing less 
is demanded of us Englishmen, to whose charge 
the Almighty has committed the souls and bodies 
of two hundred and fifty millions of His creatures, 
than that every man among us, whether clerical 
or lay, should strive to be a missionary according to 
the standard set up by the first great Missionary 
— Christ Himself Let no lower standard of our 
duty satisfy us. So will the good time arrive when 
not only every ear shall have heard the good news of 
the reconciliation of man to his Maker, but every 
tongue also of every native of India — from Cape 
Comorin to the Himalaya mountains — shall coii- 
fess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God 
the Father. 



(■87) 



APPENDIX, 



DISTINCTIVE FEATURES OF THE SIX SCHOOLS 

OF PHILOSOPHY. 

The names of the Six Schools of Philosophy have 
been already given, and the doctrines common to them 
all briefly explained (see p. 46). No student of 
Hinduism, however, and certainly no missionary, ought 
to be satisfied without acquiring a clear and accurate 
knowledge of the principal distinguishing characteristics 
of the six philosophical schools. The more advanced 
scholar will, of course, do well to study the original 
Sutras in which the dogmas of each school are 
enunciated. But a concise outline of each system 
may be found useful by those who have not time to 
make themselves Sanskritists. 

In endeavouring to give a trustworthy sketch of 
this difficult and intricate subject, it will be convenient 
to begin with the Nyaya of Gotama,with its supplement, 
the Vaiseshika, not because the Nyaya is first in order 
of time, but because it isgenerally first studied, and much 
of its terminoiOg>^ is adopted by the other systems. 

The Nyaya proper. 

The word Nyaya 'signifies 'going into a subject,' 
i.e. investigating it analytically. In this sense of 
' analysis,' the word Nyaya is exactly opposed to 
Sankhyd, ' synthesis.' It is common to suppose that 
the Nyaya is chiefly concerned with logic, but this is 
merely one part of a single topic, the fact rather being 
that this system was intended to furnish a correct 
method of philosophical inquiry into a// the objects and 



l88 • HINDUISM. 

subjects of human knowledge, including, amongst ot/icrs, 
the process of reasoning and laws of thought. 

The Nyaya proper propounds in its first Sutra six- 
teen topics, the first of which is Fravid?ia, i. e. the 
means or instrument by which Prama, or the right 
measure of a subject, is to be obtained. The different 
processes by which the mind arrives at true and 
accurate knowledge are four; viz. — a. Fratyaks/ia, 
' perception by the senses' ; b. Aniimana, ' inference' ; 
c. Upanidiia, 'comparison'; d. S'abda, 'verbal authority,' 
or ' trustworthy testimony,' including Vedic revelation. 

The treatment of the second of these four, ' infer- 
ence,' indicates that the Hindus have not, like other 
nations, borrowed their logic from the Greeks. It is 
divided into five Avayavas or 'members.' i. The 
//-^/(/W^z, or proposition (stated hypothetically). 2. The 
heiu, or reason. 3. The nddharana, or example 
(= major premiss). 4. The iijbanaya, or application 
of the reason (= minor premiss). 5. The iiigamaiiay 
or conclusion, i. e. the proposition re-stated as proved. 
This method of splitting an argument into five divisions 
is thus illustrated : i. The hill is fiery ; 2. for it 
smokes ; 3. whatever smokes is fiery, as a kitchen- 
hearth; 4. this hill smokes; 5. therefore this hill is fiery. 

Here we have a combination of enthymeme and 
syllogism, which seems clumsy by the side of Aristotle's 
conciser method ; but it possesses some advantages 
when regarded not as a syllogism, but as a full and 
complete rhetorical statement of an argument. 

Perhaps the most noticeable peculiarity in the 
Indian method, stamping it as an original and in- 
dependent analysis of the laws of thought, is the use 
of the curious terms Vydpti, ' pervasion ' ; Vydpaka, 
' pervader ' ; and Vydpya, ' to be pervaded.' These 
terms are employed in making a universal afiirmation, 
or in affirming universal distribution ; as, for example, 
' Wherever there is smoke there is fire.' In such a 



APPENDIX. 189 

case an Indian logician always expresses himself by 
saying that there is an invariably pervading concomi- 
tance of fire with smoke. Fire is therefore called the 
pervader, and smoke the pervaded ; and the argument 
would be thus briefly stated by a Naiydyir.a : * The 
mountain has invariably fire-pervaded smoke, there- 
fore it has fire.' 

The second topic of the Nyaya proper is Prameya^ 
i.e. the subjects of Pramd, or the subjects about which 
right knowledge is to be obtained. These are twelve : 
viz. I. Soul {at man). 2. Body {sarlra). 3. Senses 
{indriya). 4. Objects of sense (^;'///«). 5. Understand- 
ing or intellection (biiddhl). 6. Mind {iJianas). 7. Acti- 
vity {pravritti). 8. Faults {dosha). 9. Transmigration 
ipreiya-bJidva). 10. Consequences or fruits (phala). 
II. V^im {didikha). 12. luuancipation ((?/^r'^;^^). 

"With regard to the fourteen other topics, they seem 
to be not so much philosophical categories as an 
enumeration of the regular stages through which a 
controversy is likely to pass. In India argument 
slides into wrangling disputation even more easily than 
in Europe, and the remaining topics certainly illustrate 
very curiously the captious propensities of a Hindu 
disputant, leading him to be quick in repartee, and 
ready with specious objections to the most conclusive 
argument. 

There is, first, the state of San/saya, or 'doubt 
about the point to be discussed.' Next, the Prayojana, 
or ^ motive for discussing it.' Next follows a Drish- 
fdnta, or ' example ' leading to the Siddhdnta, or 
' established conclusion.' Then comes an objector 
with his Avayava, or ' argument split up,' as we have 
seen, into five members. Next follows the Ta7'ka or 
'refutation {rcductio ad absurdum) of his objection,' 
and the Nirfjaya, or * ascertainment of the true state 
of the case.' But this is not enough to satisfy a 
Hindu's passion for disputation. Every side of a 
o 2 



190 



HINDUISM. 



question must be examined — every possible objection 
stated — and so a further Vdda, or ' controversy,' takes 
place, which of course leads to Jalpa, ' mere wran- 
gling,' followed by Vitaiida, ' cavilling ' ; Hetv-abhaser^ 
' fallacious reasoning' ; C hala, ' quibbling artifices ^; 
/dti, 'futile replies'; 2indi Nigraha-sthdna, 'the putting 
an end to all discussion/ by a demonstration of the 
objector's incapacity for argument. 

After enumerating these sixteen topics, Gotama 
proceeds to show how false notions are at the root of 
all misery. For from false notions comes the fault of 
liking, disliking, or being indifferent to anything ; 
from that fault proceeds activity ; from this mistaken 
activity proceed actions involving either merit or 
demerit, which merit or demerit forces a man to pass 
through repeated births for the sake of its reward or 
punishment. From these births proceeds misery, and 
it is the aim of philosophy to correct the false notions 
at the root of this misery. 

The VaiscsJiika (supplement of the Nyaya). 

The Vaiseshika may be called a supplement of the 
Nyaya proper. It is attributed to a sage named 
Kanada ('atom-eater'), and is not so much a branch 
of the Nyaya as a development of it, extending the 
system to physical investigations, which it conducts- 
very imperfectly, it is true, and often with strange 
fancies and absurd blunders, but, nevertheless, with 
occasional exactness, and not unfrequently with sin- 
gular sagacity. It is, perhaps, the most interesting of 
all the systems, both from its more practical character 
and from the parallels it offers to European philo- 
sophical ideas. It begins by arranging its inquiries 
under seven Faddrthas, or categories (/. e. enumera- 
tion of certain general properties or attributes that 
may be predicated of existing things), which, as they 



APPENDIX. 191 

are more properly categories than the topics of tne 
Nyaya proper, are now the generally-received cate- 
gories of the Naiyayikas. They are as follows : — 
I. Substance idravya) ; 2. Quality or property {giina) ; 
3, Act or action {karniaN); 4. Generality or community 
of properties {sdindnya) ; 5. Particularity or indivi- 
duality {viscs/ia) ; 6. Coinherence or perpetual intimate 
relation {samavdya) ; 7. Non-existence, or negation 
of existence {abhdva). 

Kanada, however, enumerated only six categories : 
the seventh was added by later writers. 

The seven categories have most of them sub- 
divisions. Those of the first categorj^ Draiya, sub- 
stance, are nine, to wit — earth, water, light, air, ether, 
time, space, soul, and the internal organ or mind. 

The first four of these nine, and the last (viz. Manas, 
* the mind '), are held to be atomic, and the first four 
are both eternal and non-eternal ; non-eternal in their 
various compounds, eternal in their ultimate atoms 
to which they must be traced back. 

As to the second category, G?//ia, ' quality,' there are 
seventeen qualities inherent in the nine substances ; 
viz. colour, savour, odour, tangibility, numbers, exten- 
sions, individuality, conjunction, disjunction, priority, 
posteriority, intellections, pleasure, pain, desire, aver- 
sion, volitions. Seven others are said to be implied ; 
viz. gravity, fluidity, viscidity, self-reproduction, merit, 
demerit, and sound ; making twenty-four in all. 

Sixteen of these qualities belong to material sub- 
stances. The other eight — viz. intellection, volition, 
desire, aversion, pleasure, pain, merit, and demerit — 
are the properties of the soul. 

The third category, Karnia)i, ' act,' consists of five 
kinds of acts ; viz. elevation, depression, contraction, 
dilatation, and motion; and the fourth, Sdnidnya, gene- 
rality of properties, is said to be twofold; viz. higher and 
lower generality, to wit, that of genus and of species. 

The fifth category, Viseslia, ' particularity,' belongs 



192 HINDUISM. 

to the nine eternal substances of the first category, 
all of which have an eternal ultimate difference, dis- 
tinguishing each from the other. Hence the system 
is called Vaiseshika. 

The sixth category, Saniavdya, ' coinherence,' is of 
only one kind. It is the coinherence between a sub- 
stance and its qualities, between atoms and what is 
formed out of them, between a genus or species and its 
individuals, between any object and the general idea 
connected with it, and is thought to be a real entity. 

As to the seventh, Abhdva^ 'non-existence,' four 
kinds are specified ; viz. antecedent non-existence, 
cessation of existence, mutual non-existence (as of a 
jar in cloth), absolute non-existence. 

In the Vaiseshika system the formation of the world 
is supposed to be effected by the aggregation of atoms. 
These are innumerable and eternal, and are eternally 
aggregated, disintegrated, and redisintegrated by the 
power of Adrishta (see p. 51). An atom is defined 
as ' something existing, having no cause, and eternal.' 
It is, moreover, described as less than the least, in- 
visible, intangible, indivisible, imperceptible by the 
senses ; and each atom has a ViksJia, or eternal essence 
of its own. The combination of these atoms is first 
into an aggregate of two. Three of them, again, are 
supposed to combine into a particle, called Trasa- 
renu, which, like a mote in a sunbeam, has just 
sufficient magnitude to be perceptible. 

With regard to a Supreme Being, the name of 
Jsvara, ' Supreme Lord,' is introduced once into 
Gotama's Sutras, but is not found in Kanada's. 

Probably the belief of both was that the formation 
of the world was simply the result of Adrishta, ' the 
unseen force,' derived from the works or acts of a 
previous world. This force becomes in Hindu phi- 
losophy a kind of god, if not the only god. Later 
Naiyayika writers, however, affirm the existence of a 
Supreme Soul (paramdf//ia/i), distinct from the living 



APPENDIX. 193 

human Soul {jivatmaii) ; and this Supreme Soul is 
described by them as eternal, immutable, omniscient, 
without form, all-pervading, all-powerful, and more- 
over as the framer of the universe. 

Again, they hold the living individual souls of men 
{jivdtniaii) to be eternal, manifold, eternally separate 
from each other, and distinct from the body, senses, 
and mind, yet capable of apprehension, volition, de- 
sire, aversion, pleasure, pain, merit, and demerit ; and 
they hold them to be infinite, ubiquitous, and diffused 
everywhere tJiroiigJw2it space, so that a man's soul is as 
much in England as in Calcutta, though it can only ap- 
prehend and feel and act where the body happens to be. 

The Nyaya idea of the mind {man as), which it calls 
an internal organ, is that it is like the soul, a Dravya, 
or eternal substance. Instead, however, of being 
diffused everywhere like the soul, it is atomic, like 
earth, water, fire, and air. In lact, it can only admit 
one thought at a time. If it were infinite like the 
soul, all apprehensions and conceptions might be con- 
temporaneous, which is impossible. 

It is clear then that the Vaiseshika cosmogony is 
dualistic in the sense of assuming the existence of 
eternal atoms, side by side either with eternal souls, or 
with the Supreme Soul of the universe. It is opposed 
to any theor}^ which would make an impure and evil 
world spring from a pure and perfect spirit. Nor does 
it undertake to decide positively what it cannot prove 
dialectically — the precise relation between soul and 
matter. 

77ie Sdnkhya. 

The Sankhya philosophy, founded by a sage named 
Kapila, though probably prior in date, is generally 
studied next to the Nyaya, and is more categorically 
dualistic. It wholly repudiates the notion that impure 
matter can originate from pure spirit, and, of course, 
denies that anything can be produced out of nothing. 



194 HINDUISM. 

The following aphorisms propound its doctrine of 
evolution : — 

"There cannot be production of something out of nothing ; 
that which is not cannot be developed into that which is. The 
production of what does not ah-eady exist (potentially) is impos- 
sible, like a horn on a man ; because there must of necessity be 
a material out of which a product is developed, and because 
everything cannot occur everywhere at all times, and because 
anything possible must be produced from something competent 
to produce it." 

In the Sankhya, therefore, instead of an analytical 
inquiry into the universe as actually existing, arranged 
under topics and categories, we have a synthetical 
system starting from an original primordial Tattva or 
'eternally existing essence,' called Prakriti, 'that 
which evolves, or produces, or brings forth {pj-akafofi) 
everything else,' and described in the following 
ai:)horisms : — 

"From the absence of a root in the root, the root of all things 
is rootless." 

" Even if there'be a succession of causes (one before the other), 
there must be a halt at some one point ; and so Prakriti is only 
a name for the primal source (of all productions)." 

It should be noted, at the outset, that Prakriti, 
though a subtle elementary essence, is yet itself sup- 
posed to be made up of three constituent principles 
or elementary substances in equipoise, called Gutias, 
(from the word guna, a cord, because they bind the 
soul with a triple bond), viz. goodness or purity 
(sativa), passion or activity {j-ajas), and darkness or 
stolidity {tamas). These three Sankhyan Gunas are 
constantly referred to in Indian literature, and it is 
most important that the student of Hinduism should 
endeavour to understand the ideas they convey. They 
are by no means to be confounded with the Nyaya 
Gunas (see p. 191). They are the actual substances or 
ingredients of which Prakriti is constituted, just as 
trees are of a forest. Moreover, they are supposed 
to make up the whole world of sense evolved out of 
Prakriti, although in this case they are not conjoined 



APPENDIX, 195 

in equal quantities, but in varying proportions, one or 
other being in excess.^ In the case of a man, they 
make him divine and noble, thoroughly human and 
selfish, or bestial and ignorant, according to the pre- 
dominance of goodness, passion, or darkness respec- 
tively. 

This remarkable doctrine of three eternal principles, 
Sativa, Rajas, and Tainas, may be called the San- 
khyan trinity, just as the idea of Sa'c-cid-dnanda (see p. 
52) maybe regarded as the trinity of the Vedantist. 

Beginning, then, from the original eternal rootless 
germ Frahnti,'^ (also called Fradhana, chief one ; 
Aiyakfa, unevolved ; Maya, power of illusion), the 
Sankhya counts up {san-khydti) synthetically (whence 
its name of ' synthetic enumeration ') twenty-three 
other Tattvas or entities, — all productions of the first, 
and evolving themselves spontaneously out of it, as 
cream out of milk, or milk out of a cow, — while it 
carefully distinguishes them all from a twenty-fifth, 
Purusha, the soul or spirit, which is in its own nature 
destitute of Gunas, though liable to be bound by the 
Gunas of Prakriti. 

The process is thus stated in the Sankhya-karika : 

" The root and substance of all things (except soul) is Prakriti. 
It is no production. Seven things produced by it are also pro- 
ducers. Thence come sixteen productions (^uikara). Soul, the 
twenty-fifth essence, is neither a production nor producer." 



' It cannot be too often repeated, that they are not to be con- 
founded with the Nyaya Gunas. In fact, they are evidently rather 
substances or principles than qualities, though gitiia also means 
'quality'; and although such expressions as goodness, purity, 
&c., convey more the notion of a quality than of a substance. 
May not the whole idea have been suggested by the three forms 
of matter? At any rate, even modern chemists acknowledge a 
kind of material triad of substances, — solid, liquid, and gaseous. 

' The translation Naim-i, often given for this word, is alto- 
gether misleading. Better equivalents would be such expres- 
sions as Creative force, Evolver, Producer, &c. 



196 HINDUISM, 

The first production of the eternal Producer is 
BuMhi or ' inteUigence,' also termed Mahat, from its 
being the Great source of the next producer, Ahan- 
kdra, and the eleventh organ, Manas). Third in 
order comes this Ahankdra, the ' I-maker,' /. e. self- 
consciousness, or the sense of individuality, which 
produces the next five principles, called Tanmdtras, 
or ' subtle elementary particles.' These eight con- 
stitute the producers. 

Then follow the sixteen that are productions 
( Vikdra) only. And first in order, as produced by 
the Tanmatras, come the five grosser elements {inahd- 
bhuta), as follows :— 

I. Akdsa, 'ether,' with the distinguishing property or sul> 
stratum of sound (which is the vishaya or object for a corre- 
sponding organ of sense, the ear). 2. Vdyii, 'air,' with the 
property of tangibility (which is the vishaya for the skin). 3. 
Tejas or Jyofis, ' fire or light,' with the property of form or 
colour (which is the vishaya for the eye). 4. Apas, 'water,' 
with the property of taste (which is the vishaya for the tongue). 
5. Prithivi, or bhilmi, 'earth,' with the property of odour or 
smell (which is the vishaya for the nose). 

Each of these elements, after the first, lias also the 
property of the preceding besides its own. 

Next follow the eleven organs produced, like the 
Tanmatras, by the third producer, Ahan-kara. These 
are the five organs of sense, the five organs of action, 
and an eleventh organ standing between them, viz. 
Afajias, ' the mind,' which is regarded as an internal 
organ of perception, volition, and action. The eight 
producers, then, with the five grosser elements and 
the eleven organs, constitute the true elements, and 
constituent substances of the phenomenal world. As, 
however, the most important of the producers, after 



^ The huddhindi-iydni, or organs of sense, are ear, skin, eye, 
nose, tongue ; the karmendriydni, organs of action, are larynx, 
hand, foot, excretory and generative organs. 



APPENDIX. 197 

the mere unintelligent original germ, is the third, 
called Ahankdra, ' self-consciousness,' the Sankhya 
appears to maintain that the whole world of sense is 
practically created by the individual Ego, who is, 
nevertheless, quite distinct from the soul, as this soul 
is supposed to possess in itself no real consciousness 
of separate individuality, though deluded by it.^ 

But although Prakriti is the sole originator of 
creation, yet, according to the pure Sankhya, it does 
not create for itself, but rather for each individual 
soul ; nor indeed does it create at all to any practical 
purpose unless it comes into union with Purusha, 
like a crystal vase with a flower. Souls, indeed, exist 
eternally separate from each other, and from the 
Evolver Prakriti, and with whatever form of body 
they may be joined, they are held to be all intrinsic- 
ally equal, and each retains its individuality, remain- 
ing one and unchanged through all transmigrations. 
But each separate soul is a witness of the act of a 
separate creation without participating in the act. 
It is a looker on, uniting itself with unintelligent 
Prakriti, as a lame man mounted on a blind man's 
shoulders, for the sake of observing the phenomena of 
creation, which Prakriti herself is unable to observe. 

It appears, too, that all Prakriti's performances are 
solely for the benefit of soul, who receives her favours 
ungratefully. Indeed the object of the Sankhya 
system is to effect the liberation of PiiriisJia or soul 
from the fetters which bind it, in consequence of its 
union with Prakriti. This is done by conveying the 
Praj/id, or correct knowledge of the twenty-four 
constituent principles of creation, and rightly discrimi- 
nating the soul from them ; its Pramdnas (see p. 188),. 



This idea of personal ind'vidual creation is what chiefly 
distinguishes the Sankhya from the pantheism of the Vedanta.. 
which denies all real personal individuality. 



J 98 HINDUISM. 

•or ' means of obtaining the correct measure of exist- 
ing things,' being reduced from four to three; viz., 
perception by the senses {drishfa), inference {a/mwdna), 
and credible assertion or trustworthy testimony {dpta- 
va'cana). 

No one can doubt that the Sankhyan view of the 
•soul is inferior to that of the Nyaya, which ascribes to 
it, when joined to mind, activity, volition, thought, and 
feeling. Obviously, too, the pure Sankhya is more 
atheistical than the pure Nyaya ; for if the Creation 
produced by the Evolver, Prakriti, has an existence 
■of its own independent of all connection with the 
■particular Purusha to Avhich it is joined, there can 
be no need of an intelligent Creator of the world, or 
-even of any superintending power. 

Notwithstanding these atheistical tendencies, the 
charge of unorthodoxy is evaded by a confession of 
faith in the Veda. Some adherents of the Sankhya 
maintain the existence of a supreme Soul, called 
Hiranya-garhJia, and of a general ideal phenomenal 
universe with which that supreme Soul is connected, 
and into which all the subcreations of inferior souls 
are gathered. 

It is remarkable that this singular theory of the rela- 
tionship between spirit and matter, involving as it does 
a strange jumble of physical and metaphysical subtle- 
ties, has always had peculiar charms for the Hindu 
mind. Not that the uneducated masses could make 
;anything of the mysticism of a primordial eternal germ 
evolving out of itself twenty-three substances to form 
a visible world for the soul, described as apathetic, 
inactive, devoid of all qualities, and a mere indif- 
ferent spectator ; but that ordinary men are only too 
prone to accept any theory of the origin of the 
universe which makes the acts of the Creator har- 
monize with their own operations and the phenomena 
which surround them. Even the most illiterate 



APPENDIX. 199 

Hindu, therefore, was well able to understand and 
adopt the idea of a universe proceeding from Pra- 
kriti and Purusha as from father and mother. Indeed 
the idea of a union between the female principle, 
regarded as an energy or capacity (sakfi), and the 
male principle, regarded as a generator, is, as we 
have already seen (see p. 123), of great antiquity in 
the Hindu system. 

It is noteworthy that Buddhism, which represented 
many of the more popular philosophical ideas of the 
Hindus, perhaps as early as the sixth century B.C., 
has more in common with the Sankhya philosophy 
than with any of the other systems. 

Even the cosmogony of Manu, although a com- 
pound of various theories, presents a process of 
evolution very similar to that of the Sankhya. 

Perhaps, however, the extreme popularity of the 
Sankhyan idea of a union of two principles is best 
shown by the later cosmogony and mytholog}^ In 
the Puranas and Tantras, the great repositories of 
the popular Hindu creed, Prakriti becomes a real 
mother of the universe, taking the form of female 
personifications, Avho are regarded as the wives or 
female energies and capacities {sakti) of the prin- 
cipal male deities, to whom, on the other hand, the 
name Purusha, in the sense of the Supreme Soul, or 
primeval male, is sometimes applied. This is espe- 
cially the case, as we have shown in chapter ix., with 
the s'akti, or female energy of Siva, worshipped by 
vast numbers as the true ' mother of the universe.' ' 

From the popularity of the Sanhkya and its in- 
fluence on the later mythology we shall not be sur- 
prised to find that there is a common saying in India, 



^ This is the best explanation of the fact, that the shrines of 
the linga and yoni are more common than any other through- 
out India. 



200 HINDUISM. 

*No knowledge equal to the Sankhya, no power 
equal to the Yoga.' 

T/ie Yoga. 

The Yoga, founded by Patanjali and regarded as 
a branch of the Sankhya, is scarcely worthy of the 
name of a separate system of philosophy. Yet it has 
undoubted charms for the naturally contemplative 
and ascetical Hindu, and claims greater orthodoxy 
than the Sankhya proper, by directly acknowledging 
the existence of a Supreme Being. 

In brief, the aim of the Yoga is to teach the means 
by which the human soul may attain complete union 
with the Universal Soul. This fusion or blending 
of the individual spirit ^vith the supreme Purusha, 
or ' universal Spirit,' may be effected even in the 
body by the constant habit of keeping the mind in 
its unmodified state — a state clear as crystal when 
uncoloured by contact with other substances, and 
by the practice of complete suppression of the pas- 
sions {vairdgya). The last condition of suppression 
of all action is only to be achieved by meditation 
on the Supreme Being, who is defined to be ' a Spirit 
unafi'ected by works, having for one of his appel- 
lations the mystical monosyllable Om.' Indeed the 
repetition of Ofii is supposed to be all-efficacious in 
giving knowledge of the Supreme and preventing 
the obstacles to Yoga. The eight means of mental 
concentration are as follows : — 

I. _Yama, 'restraint.' 2. AHyama, 'religious observances.* 
3. A Sana, 'postures.' 4. Prdndydma, 'suppression of the 
breath,' or 'breathing in a peculiar way.' 5. Pratydhdra, 're- 
straint of the senses.' 6. Dhdrana, 'steadying of the mind.' 
7. Dhydna, 'contemplation.' 8. Sainddhi, 'profound medita- 
tion,' or a state of religious trance, which is most effectually at- 
tained by such practices as fixing the eyes intently and inces- 
santly on the tip of the nose, &c. 



APPENDIX. 20I 

The Yoga system appears, in fact, to be a mere 
contrivance for getting rid of all thought, or rather 
for concentrating the mind with the utmost intensity 
upon nothing in particular. Ordinarily it is a strange 
compound of exercises, consisting in unnatural re- 
straint, forced and painful postures, twistings and 
contortions of the limbs, suppressions of the breath 
undertaken apparently with no object except to 
achieve complete vacuity of mind. Many Hindu 
devotees and ascetics,^ especially those who, as form- 
ing a division of the Saiva sect, identify the austere 
god Siva with the Supreme Being, are commonly 
called Yogins or Yogis, the professed object of their 
austerities being to effect union with the Deity. 

The Purva-M'imansd or Mimdnsd. 

The Mimdnsd of Jaimini is sometimes connected 
Nvith the Vedanta, this latter being called the Uttara- 
mividnsd or Brahma-??iimdnsd, because founded on 
the Upanishads, or latter part of the Vedas, while 
Jaimini's system is styled either Purva-viimdnsd^ ' an 
inquiry into the former portion of the Veda,' or 
Kanna-mimdnsd, ' an inquiry into the ritual of the 
Veda,' because concerned with the Mantras and 
Brahmanas only. It is more usual, however, to mark 
the opposition of the two systems to each other by 
calling the one Mhnansa, and the other Vedanta. 
In real fact, the Mimansa is not a branch of any 
philosophical system : it is rather a system of Vedic 
interpretation. Its aim is to solve the doubts and 
discrepancies in regard to Vedic texts, caused by the 
discordant explanations of opposite schools ; and its 
only claim to the title of a philosophy consists in 
its mode of interpretation. Its topics are arranged 
according to particular categories (such as, authori- 
tativeness, indirect precept, &c.), and treated according 



202 HINDUISM. 

to a kind of logical method, commencing with the 
proposition to be discussed, the doubt arising about 
it, the Purva-paksha or prima facie and wrong view 
of the question, the Uttara-paksJia or refutation of 
the Avrong view, and the conclusion. 

Its philosophical discussions amount to a kind of 
critical commentary on the Brahmana or ritual portion 
of the Veda ; and it differs from the Vedanta in 
interpreting the Mantras according to the obvious 
literal sense, and not any supposed occult meaning 
underlying the text. Jaimini was, in real truth, the 
opponent of both rationalism and theism. Not that 
he denied a God, but the tendency of his teaching 
was to allow no voice or authority to either reason or 
God. The Veda was practically the only god. A 
Supreme Being might exist, but was not necessary to 
the system. The Veda, said Jaimini, is itself autho- 
rity, and has no need of an authorizes His first 
aphorism states the whole aim and object of his 
system, viz., a desire to know Dharma or duty, Avhich 
consists in the performance of the rites and sacrifices 
prescribed by the Veda, because they are so'prescribed, 
without reference to the will or approval of any per- 
sonal god, for Dharma is itself the bestower of reward. 
Some recent INIimansakas, however, maintain that 
Dharma ought to be performed as an offering to a 
Supreme Being, and that it is to be so performed as 
a means of emancipation. 

Some singular speculations occur in Jaimini's system. 
His belief in the inherent authority of the Veda, 
independently of any divine Revealer, leads him to 
assert its own absolute eternity, and he declares that 
only eternally pre-existing objects are mentioned in 
it. Other strange doctrines maintained by him are 
that there is a perpetual connection between a word 
and its sense, and that sound is eternal, or rather, 
that an eternal sound underlies all temporary sound. 



APPENDIX. 203 

We may add, in illustration of the notion of the 
eternity of sound, that the Chinese have a saying : 
* The echoes of a word once uttered vibrate in space 
to all eternity.' 

The Veddnta. 

The Vedanta of Vyasa or Badarayaiia is, for con- 
venience, placed last of the six orthodox systems ; 
but on many accounts it ought to stand first. The 
outline of its pantheistic creed is traceable, as we 
have seen, in the Rig-veda, and it conforms more 
closely than any other system to the doctrines pro- 
pounded in the Upanishads, on which treatises indeed, 
as forming the end of the Veda, it professes to be 
founded. Moreover, it is the truest exponent of the 
habits of thought of thoughtful Hindus, as much in 
the most recent as in the most ancient times. The 
most celebrated teacher of this school of philosophy 
was Sankaracarya (see p. 137), who was the great 
reviver of Brahmanism, in opposition to unorthodox 
Buddhism, about the end of the 7th or beginning of 
the 8th century of our era. 

As the Nyaya has much in common with the prac- 
tical philosophy of Aristotle, which gave to things 
and individuals, rather than to ideas, a real existence, 
so the Vedanta offers many parallels to the idealism 
of Plato. 

A Vedantist's creed has the merit of extreme sim- 
plicity, being comprised in the well-known formula of 
three words from the C'handogya Upanishad {ekam 
evddvitiyani, one only essence without a second), 
or in the following : " Brahma exists truly, the world 
falsely, the soul is only Brahma, and no other," or in 
the following : " All this universe indeed is Brahma ; 
from him does it proceed ; into him is it dissolved ; 
in him it breathes. So let ever}^ one adore him 
calmly." 

P 



204 HINDUISM. 

Here, then, wc liavc presented to us a different 
view of the origin of the world. In the Nyaya it 
proceeded from a concurrence of eternal atoms ; in 
the Sankhya from one original creative force called 
Prakriti ; the latter not operating independently, but 
only when associated with souls, which, according to 
one view, are presided over by a supreme soul. In 
the Vedanta, there is really no individual soul at all, 
as distinct from the universal Soul. Hence, the doc- 
trine of this school is called Advaiia^ 'non-dualism.' 
The universe exists, but merely as a product of the one 
eternal Essence, when overspread by Maya or Illusion. 

Badarayana's first aphorism states the object of the 
whole system in one word, viz., BraJwia-jijnasa^ ' the 
desire of knowing Brahma' (neut). 

In the second aphorism this Brahma is defined to 
mean, ' that from which the production of this universe 
results.' 

From other portions of the aphorisms it appears 
that the one universal essence, called Brahma (not 
Bralwid), is to the external world what yarn is to 
cloth, what milk to curds, what earth to a jar, what 
gold to a bracelet. This Essence is both creator and 
creation, actor and act. It is itself Existence, Know- 
ledge, and Joy (Sac-dd-dna?ida)} but at the same 
time, without parts, unbound by qualities, without 
action, without emotion, having no consciousness, 
such as is denoted by ' I ' and ' Thou,' apprehending 
no person or thing, nor apprehended by any, having 
neither beginning nor end, immutable, the only real 
entity. 

' This is the Vedantist's trinity, corresponding very reniarlc- 
aljly, as Mr. Robson observes, ^ith the Author of Existence (tlie 
Father), the Source of Wisdom (Christ, the Word), and the 
Source of Joy (the Holy Spirit) ; thus the Veda, the Vedanta, 
and the Bhakti-sastras all point to the triple nature of the 
Supreme Being. 



APPENDIX. 205 

If this be true, then pure Bemg must be ahnost 
identical with pure Nothing, so that the two extremes 
of Buddhistic Nihilism and Vedantic Pantheism, 
far as they profess to be apart, appear in the end 
to meet. 

The creed of the Vedantist docs not necessarily 
imply that the world is all Maya, 'mere illusion.' 
A true Vedantist, though he affirms that Brahma 
alone is real, allows a practical {vyavahdrikd) exist- 
ence to souls, the world, and Isvara, as distinguished 
from real {^draindrthikd) and from illusory existence 
{prdiibhdsika). How, indeed, can it be denied that 
external things exist when we see them and feel 
them at every instant ? But how, on the other hand, 
can it be maintained that an impure world is evolved 
from a pure spiritual essence? To avoid this diffi- 
culty, the Supreme Being is represented as connecting 
himself, from all eternity, with illusion or ignorance, 
in order to draw out from himself, for his own amuse- 
ment, the separate individuated souls and various 
appearances, which are not really the product of his 
ov\'n pure essence, but mere apparent phenomena. 
Indeed the external world, personal souls, and even 
Isvara, the personal God, are often described as 
created by an actual power which the Vedanta, like 
the Sankhya, calls either Maya ' Illusion,' or A-vidya, 
generally translated ' Ignorance,' but perhaps better 
rendered by ' False Kno-vledge.' 

Of this power there are two distinct forms of 
operation, that of envelopment {dvarana), and that 
of projection {vikshcpa); which last projects on the 
soul the appearance of a world, producing first the 
five subtle elements, and drawing out from them 
seventeen subtle bodies (comprising the five organs 
of sense, the five organs of action, the five vital 
airs, with bitddhi and vianas), and the five gross 
elements, as in the Sankhya. 
r 2 



2 06 HINDUISM. 

By reason of Avidya, then, the Jhatman, or living 
soul of every individual, mistakes the world as well as 
its own body and mind for realities, just as a rope in 
a dark night might be mistaken for a snake. The 
moment the personal soul is set free from this self- 
imposed ignorance by a proper understanding of the 
truth through the Vedanta philosophy, all the illusion 
vanishes, and the identity of the Jivatman and of the 
whole phenomenal universe with the Paramatman, 
or Supreme Soul, is re-established. 

It may be noted that in the Vedanta the living 
soul of individuals, when separated off from the 
Supreme Soul, is regarded as enclosed in a succes- 
sion of cases (kosa) which envelop it, and, as it were, 
fold one over the other, like the coats of an onion. ^ 

Of course the Vedanta theory, if pushed to its 
ultimate consequences, must lead to the neglect of 
all duties, religious and moral, of all activity, phy- 
sical and intellectual, and of all self-culture. If 
everything be God, then you and he and I must be 
one. Why should any efforts be made for the 
advancement of self or for the good of others ? 
Everything we have must be common property. 



Eclectic School. — The Bhagavad-Gitd. 

The Bhagavad-gita,^ commented on by the great 
Vedantic teacher ^ankaracarya (see pp. 83, 203), may 



' These arc called Vijndiia-inaya,_I\Iano-maya, Prdna-viaya, 
Anua-inaya, and a fifth is named Anaiida-maya. 

' I am obliged to repeat here, as in some of the preceding 
Images of this work, much of what I have already described in 
the work called ' Indian Wisdom,' for the simple reason that 
it is essential to my present subject ; and I find myself unable 
to vary my descriptions without spoiling them. 



APPENDIX. 207 

be regarded as representing the Eclectic school of 
Indian philosophy. As the regular systems were 
developments of the Upanishads, so the Eclectic 
school is connected with those mystical treatises 
through the Svetasvatara Upanishad. This last is 
a comparatively modern Upanishad, but whether 
it was composed before or after the Bhagavad-gita, 
the design of both is evidently the same. They both 
aim at reconciling the conflicting views of different 
systems, by an attempt to engraft the Sankhya and 
Yoga upon Vedanta doctrines. Although, therefore, 
the order of creation and much of the cosmogony 
of the Sankhya system are retained in both, the 
sovereignty of the Soul or Spirit of the universe 
(Bra/una/i, neut.) with which Krishna is identified, 
ar, the source and end of all created things, and yet 
wholly independent of all such creations, is asserted 
by both. 

The real author of the Bhagavad-glta is unknown. 
Nor is it knoAvn when the work was inserted in the 
Bhishma-par\'an of the Maha-bharata, in which poem 
it lies inlaid like a pearl, contributing, with other 
numerous episodes, to the tesselated character of that 
immense epic.^ 

The author was probably an earnest Brahman 
and nominally a Vaishnava, but really a philosopher 
whose mind was cast in a broad mould. He is sup- 
posed to have lived in India about the second or third 
century of our era. Finding no rest for his spirit in 
the extreme dogmatism of any one system of philo- 
sophy, as commonly taught in his own time, much 
less in the nanow-minded exclusivencss, and cor- 
rupt forms of Brahmanism which surrounded him, 
he was driven to construct an eclectic school of his 



' It commences at line 830 of the 25th chapter of the Parvan, 
and ends at line 1,532. 



2 08 HINDUISM. 

own. This he has done with great perspicuity and 
beauty of language in the Bhagavad-gita, conibinmg 
various theories into one system, by interweaving, 
so to speak, threads from the Sankhya, Yoga, and 
Vedanta, so as to form a many-coloured woof of 
thought, which is shot across a stiff warp of the doc- 
trine of love (<^//i7/('//) for Krishna, and of stern devotion 
to caste duties {dharma). Of these cross threads the 
most conspicuous are those of the Sankhya, for which 
the author of the Gita has an evident predilection. 
As a necessary result of its composite character, the 
work is, of course, full of inconsistencies. The wliole 
composition is skilfully thrown into the form of a 
dramatic poem, something after the manner of the 
book of Job or a dialogue of Plato. The speakers 
are the two most important personages in the Maha- 
bharata — Arjuna and Krishna. Arjuna is, perhaps, 
the real hero of that epic. He is the bra\'est, and yet 
the most tender-hearted of the five sons of Pandu. 
The god Krishna, who is identified with Vishnu, "and 
in this philosophical dialogue is held to be the Supreme 
Being himself, had taken form as the son of Devaki 
and Vasudeva, who was brother of Kunti, wife of 
]\lndu. Plence the god was cousin of the sons of 
Pandu, brother of Dhrita-rashtra, the sons of these 
brothers being of course related as cousins to each 
other. In the great war which arose between the two 
families of Pandu and Dhrita-rashtra (see p. 1 1 2),repre- 
.senting two Kshatriya races contending for supremacy, 
Krishna refused to take up arms on either side, but 
consented to act as the charioteer of Arjuna, and to 
aid him with his advice. At the commencement of 
the Bhagavad-gita the two contending armies are 
supposed to be drawn up in battle-array, when Arjuna 
is struck with sudden compunction at the idea of 
fighting his way to a kingdom through tlie blood of 
his kindred, and asks Krishna's opinion as to his 



APPENDIX. 209 

proper course of action. Krishna's reply is made the 
occasion of the long philosophical dialogue, com- 
monly called ' the Song of the Adorable One/ sup- 
posed to contain the actual utterances of the god, 
and venerated as one of the most sacred portions of 
Indian literature, as it certainly is one of the most 
beautiful. Undoubtedly the main design of the poem, 
the sentiments expressed in which have exerted a 
powerful influence throughout India for the last 
1600 years, is to inculcate the doctrine of Bhakti, 
to exalt the duties of caste above all other obligations, 
including those of friendship and kindred. As 
Arjuna belongs to the military caste, he is exhorted 
to perform his appointed work as a soldier. Again 
and again is he urged to fight, without the least 
thought about consequences, and without the slightest 
question as to the propriety of slaughtering his 
relations. Hence we have the following sentiments 
often repeated (III. 35, XVIII. 47, 4S) : 

Better to do tlie duty of one's caste, 

Though bad and ill-performed and frauglit with evil, 

Than undertake the business of another, 

However good it be. For better far 

Abandon life at once than not fulfil 

One's own appointed work ; another's duty 

Brings danger to the man who meddles with it. 

Perfection is alone attained by him 

Who swerves not from the business of his caste. 

The poem is divided into three sections, each con- 
taining six (Chapters, the philosophical teaching in each 
section being somewhat distinct. 

The first section dvrells chiefly on the benefits of 
the Yoga system, pointing out, however, that the 
asceticism and self-mortification of the Yoga ought 
to be joined with action, and the performance of 
caste duties, and winding up with a declaration that 
the grand aim of all self-suppression is to attain that 



210 HINDUISM. 

most desirable state which enables a man to annihilate 
his own individuality, and see God in everything and 
everything in God. Arjuna is comforted under the 
distressing thought that he is about to kill his relations, 
by an argument drawn from the eternal existence of 
the soul, which is nobly expressed thus : 

" The wise grieve not for the departed, nor for those who yet 
survive. Never was the time when I was not, nor thou, nor 
yonder chiefs, and never shall be the time when all of us shall 
not be ; as the embodied soul in this corporeal frame moves 
swiftly on through boyhood, youth, and age, so will it pass 
through other forms hereafter — be not grieved thereat. The 
man whom pain and pleasure, heat and cold affect not, he is fit 
for immortality. Whatever is not cannot be ; whatever is can 
never cease to be. Know this — the Being that spread this uni- 
verse is indestructible. Who can destroy the Indestructible ? 
These bodies that enclose the everlasting soul, inscrutable, im 
mortal, have an end ; but he who thinks .the soul can be de- 
stroyed, and he who deems it a destroyer, are alike mistaken ; 
it kills not, and is not killed ; it is not born, nor doth it 
ever die ; it has no past nor future — unproduced, unchanging, 
infinite ; he who knows it fixed, unbom, imperishable, indis- 
soluble, how can that man destroy another, or extinguish 
ought below ? As men abandon old and threadbare clothes to 
put on others new, so casts the embodied soul its worn-out 
frame to enter other forms. No dart can pierce it ; flame cannot 
consume it, water wet it not, nor scorching breezes dry it — in- 
destructible, incapable of heat or moisture or aridity, eternal, 
all-pervading, steadfast, immovable, perpetual, yet impercep- 
tible, incomprehensible, unfading, deathless, unimaginable." 

In the second and sixth chapters the duty of Yoga 
or 'intense concentration of the mind on one subject' 
(viz. the Supreme Being, here identified with Krishna), 
till at last the great end of freedom from all thought, 
perfect calm, and absorption in the Deity are obtained, 
is enjoined with much force of language, as may be 
seen from the following extracts : 

That holy man who stands immovable, 
As if erect upon a pinnacle,' 



Kfita-stha (VI. 8) may mean 'standing erect like a peak/ 



APPENDIX. 218 

His appetites and organs all subdued, 

Sated with knowledge secular and sacred, 

To whom a lump of earth, a stone, or gold. 

To whom friends, relatives, acquaintances. 

Neutrals and enemies, the good and bad, 

Are all alike, is called 'one yoked with God.' 

The man who aims at that supreme condition 

Of perfect yoking - with the Deity 

Must first of all be moderate in all things, 

In food, in sleep, in vigilance, in action, 

In exercise and recreation. Then 

Let him, if seeking God by deep abstraction, 

Abandon his possessions and his hopes. 

Betake himself to some secluded spot,^ 

And fix his heart and thoughts on God alone. 

There let him choose a seat, not high nor low. 

And with a cloth or skin to cover him. 

And Kusa grass beneath him, let him sit 

Firm and erect, his body, head, and neck 

Straight and immovable, his eyes directed 

Towards a single point,* not looking round, 

Devoid of passion, free from anxious thought, 

His heart restrained, and deep in meditation. 

E'en as a tortoise draws its head and feet 

Within its shell, so must he keep his organs 

Withdrawn from sensual objects. He whose senses. 

Are well controlled attains to sacred knowledge, 

And thence obtains tranquillity of thought. 

Without quiescence there can be no bliss. 

E'en as a storm-tossed ship upon the waves, 

So is the man whose heart obeys his passions. 

Which, like the winds, will hurry him away. 

Quiescence is the state of the Supreme. 

He who, intent on meditation, joins 



' Tersely expressed in Sanski-it by sai/ia-hs/ilasnia-kdnaxita' 
(VI. 8). 

- I use these expressions as kindred words to the Sanskrit 
yukla and yoga. 'Joined' and 'junction' are also cognate 
expressions. 

^ Cf. Matt. vi. 6 : ' But thou, when thou prayest, enter into- 
thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father 
which is in secret.' 

* The text (VI. 13) says, 'fixing his eyes on the tip of his 
nose' [sainprckshya nasikagram). 



212 HINDUISM. 

His soul with the Supreme, is like a flame 
That flickers not when sheltered from the wind. 

In the second division of this poem ihc ijantbcistic 
doctrines of the Vedanta are more directly inculcated 
than in the other sections. Krishna here, in the 
plainest language, claims adoration as one Avith the 
great universal spirit, pervading and constituting the 
universe. 

The following are portions from different parts of 
this section : 

Whate'er thou dost perform, whatever thou eatest, 

Whate'er thou givest to the jvjor, whate'er 

Thou offerest in sacrifice, whate'er 

Thou doest as an act of holy penance, 

Do all as if to me, O Arjuna (IX. 27).' 

I am the ancient Sage, without beginning, 

I am the Ruler and the AU-sustainer, 

I am incomprehensible in form, 

More subtle and minute than subtlest atoms ; 

I am the cause of the whole universe : 



' Compare i Cor. x. 31 : 'Whether therefore ye cat, or drink, 
or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God.' Dr. Lorinser, 
expanding the views of Professor \Veber and others concerning 
the influence of Christianity on the legends of Krishna, thinks 
that many of the sentiments of the Bhagavad-gita have been 
directly borrowed from the New Testament, copies of which, 
he thinks, found their way into India about the third century, 
when he believes the poem to have been written. He even 
adopts the theory of a parallel in the names of Christ and 
Krishna. He does not, however, sufficiently bear in mind that 
fragments of truth are to be found in all religious systems, how- 
ever false, and that the Bible, though a true revelation, is still, 
in regard to the human mind, through which the thoughts are 
transfused, a thoroughly Oriental book, cast in an Oriental 
mould, and full of Oriental ideas and expressions. Some of his 
comparisons seem mere coincidences of language, which might 
occur independentl)'. Nevertheless, something may be said for 
Dr. Lorinser's theory. His German translation (1869) is rich in 
notes, pointing out parallels. See also the ' Indian Antiquary ' 
for October, 1873. 



APPENDIX. 213 

Through me it is created and dissolved ; 

On me all things within it hang suspended, 

Like pearls upon a string.^ I am the light 

In sun and moon, far, far beyond the darkness ; ' 

I am the brilliancy in flame, the radiance 

In all that's radiant, and the light of lights, 

The sound in ether, fragrance in the earth, 

The seed eternal of existing things, ^ 

The life in all, the father, mother, husband. 

Forefather, and sustainer of the world, 

Its friend and lord. I am its way ■* and refuge, 

Its habitation and receptacle, 

I am its witness. I am Victory 

And Energy ; I watch the universe 

With eyes and face in all dii-ections turned. 

I dwell, as Wisdom, in the heart of all. 

I am the Goodness of the good, I am 

Beginning, Middle, End, eternal Time, 

The Birth, the Death of all.* I am the symbol A 

Among the characters, I have created all 

Out of one portion of myself. E'en those 

Who are of low and unpretending birth,*' 

May find the path to highest happiness, 

If they depend on me ; how much more those 

Who are by rank and penance holy Brahmans 

And saintly soldier-princes like thyself. 

Then be not sorrowful ; from all thy sins 

I will deliver thee.^ Think thou on me, 



' Compare Rom. xi. ^6 : 'Of Him, and through Him, and 
unto Him, are all things.' John i. 3 : 'All things were made 
by Him; and without Him was not anything made that -was 
made.' 

- Compare I John i. 5 : ' God is light, and in Him is no 
darkness at all.' 

^ Compare John i. 3 : ' All things were made by Him. ' 

* Cf. John xiv. 6 : ' I am the Avay.' 

^ Compare Rev. i. 17, 18 : 'I am the first and the last ; and 
have the keys of hell and of death.' 

^ The text states who these are; viz. women, Vaisyas, and 
S'udras. This is significant in regard to the Hindu estimate of 
the female sex. A woman's religion is thought to consist in 
obedience, first to her father, and then to her husband, with 
attention to domestic duties. 

^ Cf. Matt. ix. 2 : 'Be of good cheer ; thy sins be forgiven 



214 HINDUISM 

Have faith in me, adore and worship me,' 
And join tliyself in meditation to me ; 
Thus shalt thou come to me, O Arjuna ; 
Thus shalt thou rise to my supreme abode, 
Where neither sun nor moon hath need to shine, 
For know that all the lustre they possess is mine.^ 

We come now to Chapter XI., called ' the Vision (or 
Revelation) of the Universal Form ' {^oisva-rupa-dar- 
sand). Arjuna, filled with awe at the discovery of 
the true nature of Krishna, acting as his charioteer^ 
addresses him thus : 

Most mighty Lord supreme, this revelation 
Of thy mysterious essence and thy oneness 
With the eternal Spirit, clears away 
The mists of my illusions. Show me then 
Thy form celestial, most divine of men. 
If haply I may dare to look upon it. 

To this Krishna replies : 

Thou canst not bear to gaze upon my shape 
With these thy human eyes, O son of Pandu, 
But now I gift thee Math celestial vision ; 
Behold me in a hundred thousand forms, 
In phases, colours, fashions infinite. 

Then follows the description of Krishna's super- 
natural transformation : -^ 



thee.' A sense of original corruption seems to be felt by all 
classes of Hindus, as indicated by the following prayer used after 
the Gayatrl by some Vaishnavas : — 

Pdpo ^hain pdpa-kurmaJiam papdtDid pdpa-samhhavah, 
Trdhi mam, piindankdksha sai-vapdpa-hara Hare, 

' I am sinful, I commit sin, my nature is sinful, I am conceived 
in sin ; 
Save me, O thou lotus-eyed Hari, the remover of sin.' 

Cf. Prov. xxiii. 26 : * My son, give me thine heart.' 
^ Cf. Rev, xxi. 23 : ' The city had no need of the sun, neither 

of the moon, to shine in it ; for the glory of God did lighten it.' 
^ The idea of this Dr. Lorinser considers borrowed from the 

Gospel narrative of the transfiguration. It is certainly veiy in- 



APPENDIX. 215 

Thus having said, the mighty Lord of all 

Displayed to Arjuna his form supreme, 

Endowed with countless mouths and countless eyes, 

With countless faces turned to every quarter, 

With countless marvellous appearances, 

With ornaments, and wreaths, and robes divine, 

With heavenly fragrance and celestial weapons. 

It was as if the firmament were filled, 

All in an instant with a thousand suns. 

Blazing with dazzling lustre, so beheld he 

The glories of the universe collected 

In the one person of the God of gods.* 

Arjuna with every hair on his body bristling with 
awe, bows his head at this vision, and folding his 
hands in reverence, gives utterance to a passionate 
outburst of enthusiastic adoration, which is here 
abridged : 

I see thee, mighty Lord of all, revealed 

In forms of infinite diversity. 

I see thee like a mass of purest light, 

Flashing thy lustre everywhere around. 

I see thee crowned with splendour like the sun, 

Pervading earth and sky, immeasurable, 

Boundless, without beginning, middle, end, 

Preserver of imperishable law, 

The everlasting Man ; - the triple world 

Is awe-struck at this vision of thy form, 

Stupendous, indescribable in glory. 

Have mercy, God of gods ; the universe 

Is fitly dazzled by thy majesty, 

Fitly to thee alone devotes its homage. 



structive to contrast the simplicity of the Gospel scene : * His 
face did shine as the sun, and his raiment was white as the light' 
(Matt. xvii. 2 ; Mark ix. 3). 

* In the Udyoga-parvan of the Maha-bharata (4419-4430) 
Krishna reveals his form in the same way to the assembled 
princes, who are obliged to close their eyes at the awful sight, 
while the blind Dhrita-rashtra is gifted with divine vision that 
he may behold the glorious spectacle (4437). 

2 Saiiatanah pimishah (XI. 18) may be translated ' the eternal 
Spirit.' 



2l6 HINDUISM. 

At thy approach llie evil demons flee, 

Scattered in terror to the winds of heaven. 

The miiUitude of holy saints ' adore thee — 

Thee, first Creator,- lord of all the gods, 

The ancient One,^ supreme Receptacle 

Of all that is and is not, knowing all, 

And to be known by all. Immensely vast. 

Thou comprehendest all, thou art the All (XI. 40).. 

To thee earth's greatest heroes must return, 

Blending once more whh. thy resplendent essence, 

Like mighty rivers rushing to the ocean (XI. 28). 

To thee be sung a thousand hymns of praise 

By every creature and from eveiy quarter, 

Before, above, behind. Hail! Hail ! thou All ! 

Again and yet again I v.'orship thee. 

Have mercy, I implore thee, and forgive, 

That I, in ignorance of this thy glory. 

Presumed to call thee Friend ; and pardon too 

Whate'er I have too negligently uttered, 

Addressing thee in too familiar tones. 

Unrivalled God of gods, I fall before thee 

Prostrate in adoration, thou the Father 

Of all that lives and lives not ; have compassion, 

Bear with me, as a father with a son. 

Or as a lover with a cherished one. 

Now that I see thee as thou really art, 

I thrill with terror ! Mercy ! Lord of lords, 

Once more display to me thy human form, 

Thou habitation of the universe* 

Many other remarkable passages might be adduced 
in connection with the first two divisions of the sub- 



' Cf. parts of the Te Deum. The Siddhas form a groiip {gana) 
of semi-divine beings, supposed to possess great purity, called 
Sadhyas in the earlier mythology (Manu, i. 22). Siddhas and 
Sadhyas are sometimes confused, though here mentioned sepa- 
rately (see p. 167). 

^ Cf. John viii. 58 : 'Before Abraham was, I am.' 

' Punishah pitrdnah^ ' the most ancient person ' (XI. 38). Cf. 
Daniel vii. 9 : 'The Ancient of days did sit.' 

* XI. 45, 46. Dr. Lorinser compares the awe of our Lord's 
disciples (Matt. xvii. 6): 'They fell on their face, and were 
sore afraid.' Also of Simon Peter (Luke v. 8): 'When Simon 
Peter saw it, he fell down at Jesus' knees, saying, Depart from 
mc ; for I am a sinful man, O Lord.' 



APPENDIX. 217 

ject matter of the Bhagavacl-gita. The following may 
be noted : 

lie who has brought his members under subjection, but sits 
with foohsh mind thinking in his heart of sensual things, is 
called a hypocrite (III. 6. Cf. Matt. v. 28). 

Many are my births that are past ; many are thine too, 
O Arjuna. I know them all, but thou knowest them not 
(IV. 5. Cf. John viii. 14). 

For the establishment of righteousness am I born from time 
to time (IV. 8. Cf. John xviii. 37 ; i John iii. 3). 

I am dearer to the wise than all possessions, and he is dear to 
me (VI. 17. Cf. Luke xiv. 33 ; John xiv. 21). 

The ignorant, the unbeliever, and he of a doubting mind 
perish utterly (IV. 40. Cf. Mark xvi. 16). 

In him are all beings, by him this universe was spread out 
(VIII. 22. Cf. Acts xvii. 28). 

Deluded men despise me v>^hen I have taken human form 
(IX. II. Cf. John i. 10). 

In all the Vedas I am to be known (XV. 15. Cf. John v. 39). 

As many uses as there are in a resen'oir filled with waters 
coming from all parts (for bathing, washing, or drinking), so 
many does a knowing Brahman find in all the Vedas (II. 46). 

There will be found an obvious similarity if we com- 
pare with the last statement, which is certainly borne 
out by the practice of the present day, the various 
uses made of texts from our own sacred Scriptures 
by persons who wish to find authority for extreme 
opinions. 

The next passage is suggestive of the doctrine that 
the condition of the soul for a future state is deter- 
mined before death : 

Whatever a man's state of mind be at the moment when he 
leaves the body, to that condition does he always go, being made 
to confoi-m to that (VIII. 6. Cf. Eccles. xi. 3). This is called 
the dying Sanskara which delays the passage to heaven. 

A similar passage occurs in the C'handogya Upani- 
shad, as follows : 

Man is a creature of intelligence [kratu-maya], whatever ideas 
he forms in this life, he becomes so when he departs to another, 
therefore he should reflect on God (III. 14, i). 



2]S HINDUISM. 

Subjoined is a paraphrase of another remarkable 
passage of the Bhagavad-gita (XVI. i2-t6). It may 
be compared with Luke xii. 17-20 : 

Entangled in a hundred worldly snares, 

Self-seeking men, by ignorance deluded, 

Strive by unrighteous means to pile up riches. 

Then, in their self-complacency, they say, 

' This acquisition I have made to-day, 

That I will gain to-morrow ; so much pelf 

Is hoarded up already, so much more 

Remains that I have yet to treasure up. 

This enemy I have destroyed, him also, 

And others in their turn I will dispatch. 

I am a lord ; I will enjoy myself; 

I'm wealthy, noble, strong, successful, happy ; 

I'm absolutely perfect ; no one else 

In all the world can be compared to me. 

Now I will offer up a sacrifice. 

Give gifts with lavish hand and be triumphant.' 

Such men, befooled by endless, vain conceits, 

Canght in the meshes of the world's illusion, 

Immersed in sensuality, descend 

Down to the foulest hell of unclean spirits. 



A few lines from Chapter III. ma}^ be added, in 
which Krishna exhorts Arjuna to energetic action by 
an argument drawn from the example set by himself 
in his own everlasting exertions for the good of the 
world (cf. John v. 17). The order of the text is not 
observed in the following version, and the sentiment 
in lines 6, 7, is from Chapter II. 47 : 

Perform all necessary acts, for action 

Is better than inaction, none can live 

By sitting still and doing nought ; it is 

By action only that a man attains 

Immunity from action. Yet in working 

Ne'er work for recompense ; let the act's motive 

Be in the act itself Know that work 

Proceeds from the Supreme, I am the pattern 

For man to follow ; know that I have done 



APPENDIX. 219 

All acts already, nought remains for me 

To gain by action, yet I work for ever 

Unweariedly, and this whole universe 

Would perish if I did not work my work (III. 19). 

The third division of the poem, comprising the 
last six chapters, aims particularly at interweaving 
Sankhya doctrines with the Vedanta, though this is 
done more or less throughout the whole work. It 
accepts the doctrine of a supreme presiding spirit, 
as the first source of the universe, and asserts that 
both Prakriti and Purusha — that is, the original eternal 
element and soul — both emanate from this Supreme 
Being. Moreover, it maintains the individuality of 
souls, and affirms that the body and all the world of 
sense is evolved out of Prakriti by the regular 
Sankhyan process, through Buddhi, Ahan-kara, the 
five subtile elements, the five grosser elements, and 
the eleven organs, including mind. 

Thus in XIII. 19, and in VII. 4-6, we read : 

Learn that Prakriti and Purusha also are both of them with- 
out beginning. And know that the Vikaras, or 'productions,' 
and the Gunas are sprung from Prakriti. 

Earth, water, fire, air, ether, mind, intellect, and egoism, 
into these eight is my Prakriti divided. This Prakriti is the 
inferior one, but learn my superior Prakriti to be other than this. 
Understand that all things are produced from this other Prakriti. 

Again, in VII. 12-14, Krishna, speaking of the 
three Gunas, says : 

Know that all the three Gunas, whether Sattva, Rajas, or 
Tamas, proceed only from me. I am not in them, but they 
in me. 

All this universe, deluded by these three conditions consisting 
of the Gunas, does not recognize me, the imperishable Being, 
superior to them all. 

For this divine illusion {Maya, i.e. 'illusory creation'), 
consisting of the three Gunas, caused by me, is difficult to be 
passed over. Those only are delivered from it who have recourse 
to me. 

The eclecticism of the Bhagavad-glta \vill be suffi- 
Q 



220 HINDUISM. 

ciently apparent from these examples. Three or four 
passages (taken from Chapter III, 27, Chapter XIII. 
29, 31) will form a fit conclusion to the subject, as 
they contain the gist of the whole argument, viz. that 
it is Arj Una's duty, as a soldier, to act like a soldier, 
and to do the work of his caste, regardless of con- 
sequences ; and that this may be done consistently 
with adhesion to the Vedantic dogma of the soul's 
real inactivity and state of passionless repose : 

All actions are incessantly performed 

By operation of the qualities 

Of Prakriti ; deluded by the thought 

Of individuality, the soul 

Vainly believes itself to be the doer. 

The soul existing from eternity, 

Devoid of qualities, imperishable, 

Abiding in the body, yet supreme, 

Acts not, nor is by any act polluted. 

He who perceives that actions are performed 

By Prakriti alone, and that the soul 

Is not an actor, sees the truth aright. 

Krishna's last advice may be thus summed up : 

Act then and do thine own appointed task, 

In every action my assistance ask. 

Do all with heart and soul absorbed in me, 

So shait thou gain thine end and be from trouble free. 

Arj Una's conclusion may be thus paraphrased : 

Eternal One ! thy glory just beheld 
Has all illusion from my soul dispelled ; 
Nov%^ by thy favour is my conscience clear, 
I will thy bidding do and fight without a fear. 

This beautiful poem offers, as we have seen, 
numerous parallels to passages in our ovm sacred 
Scriptures. But if we examine the writings and re- 
corded sayings of three great Roman philosophers, 
Seneca, Epictetus, and Marcus Aurelius, we shall 
find them also full of similar resemblances, while there 



APPENDIX. 221 

appears to be no ground whatever for supposing that 
these eminent Pagan writers and thinkers derived any 
of their ideas from either Jewish or Christian sources. 
The fact is that we have not sufficient data for 
determining how far the presence of corrupt forms of 
Christianity in particular districts of India from early 
times, has affected Hinduism. The Hindu system 
is like a vast ocean which has received an infinite 
number of streams, and all we can say is that into 
some of these streams Christian tributaries, from tur- 
bid springs, which have afterwards dried up, may 
possibly have found their way and become absorbed.^ 

Jainism. 

Jainism is the only representative of Buddhistic 
ideas now left in India, and has so much in common 
wdth them that, having already glanced at the chief 
features of Buddhism (see Chapter VI.), we need only 
notice a few of the distinctive traits of a system which 
is certainly the near relation of Buddhism, if not its 
actual descendant. 

The Jainas, who are still found in great numbers 
in various parts of India (especially on the western 
coast), are divided into two principal sects : — i. The 
Svetambaras, ' clothed in white garments ' ; 2. the Dig- 
ambaras, ' sky-clad,' or ' naked ' ; this distinction 
however, is now only observed in the images. These 
sects, though their doctrines rest on nearly the same 
sacred books, called collectively Agamas, and classed 
under the head of Angas, Upangas, &c.,^ differ in 



^ ]M, de Thevenot, who visited Agra in 1666, wrote that 
'some affirm that there are 25,000 Christian famihes in Agra.' 
In all probability, Shah Jahan employed only Europeans for his 
arsenals, artillery, &c. See Sleeman's Rambles, vol. ii. p. 49. 

» The Jaina scriptures of the Svetambara Jainas are comprised 
Q 2 



222 HINDUISM. 

some few matters, such as the mark of clothing or 
absence of such mark on their images, the number of 
heavens, &c. They both agree with the Buddhists in 
rejecting the Veda of the Brahmans. The principal 
point in the Jaina creed is the reverence paid to holy 
men, who, by long discipline, have raised themselves 
to divine perfection. The Jina, or ' conquering saint, 
who has conquered all worldly desires ' (whence the 
adjective Jaina, to denote a follower of the Jinas), is 
with Jainas what the Buddha, or 'perfectly enlightened 
saint,' is with Bauddhas. He is also called Jinesvara, 
' chief of the Jinas' ; Arhat, ' the venerable ' ; Tirthan- 
kara, ' the saint who has made the passage of the 
world ' ; Sarva-jna, ' omniscient ' ; Bhagavat, ' holy 
one.' Time with Jainas proceeds in two eternally 
recurring cycles of immense duration, defying all 
human calculation: i. the Utsarpini or 'ascend- 
ing cycle ' ; 2. Avasarpini or descending cycle.' 
Each of these had six stages. Those of the 
Utsarpini period are bad-bad, bad, bad-good, good- 
bad, good, good-good time. In the Avasarpini period, 
the series begins with good-good and goes regularly 
backwards. In the first cycle the age and stature of 
men increase ; in the other decrease. We are now 



in forty-five different works, in six groups collectively called 
Agamas, viz. i. eleven A 7i^as ; 2. twelve Updngas ; 3. ten 
Pdinnas ; 4. four Jllfila-silfra ; 5. six Cheda-sutra ; 6. one 
Nandi-sutra; 7. one Aiinyoga-dvdra-sfitra. Some of them have 
a fourfold commentary, under the names Tikd, Alryukti, Cunn, 
and Bhds/iya. The Tikas are in Sanskrit, the others in 
MagadhI Prakrit. Professor Dr. A. Webeir has recently given 
a long account of these works in his Indische Stiidien. I should 
add that the sacred books of the Dig-ambara Jainas are in 
Sanskrit and little known to Europeans. Two Dig-ambara 
Jainas who visited me at Jaypur spoke Sanskrit fluently, and 
■wore the Brahnianical thread. They did not deny that they 
considered themselves half Brahmans. 



APPENDIX. 223 

in the fifth stage of the Avasarpini, i.e. in * bad ' time. 
When the two cycles have run out, a Yuga or age is 
accompUshed. Twenty-four J inas, or ' perfect saints,* 
raised to the rank of gods, have appeared in the pre- 
sent Avasarpini cycle, twenty-four in the past Utsar- 
pini, and twenty-four will appear in the future. The 
idols representing them are always, like that of Buddha, 
in a contemplative jx>sture. The first Jina of the 
present cycle lived 8,400,000 years, and attained a 
stature equal to the length of 500 bows {dhanits). 
The age and stature of the second were somewhat less ; 
and so in a descending scale. The last two Jinas, 
Parsva-natha and Maha-vira, were probably real per- 
sons, and are those principally revered by the Jainas 
of the present day. In all likelihood the first founder 
of the sect was Parsva-natha, and its first active 
propagator Maha-vira. In the same cycle there have 
lived twelve 'Cakra-vartins, ' universal emperors,' nine 
divine personages called Bala-devas, nine called 
Vasudevas, and nine others called Prativasudevas, 
making a list of sixty-three divine persons in all. 

With regard to the world, the Jainas affirm that, 
being formed of eternal atoms, it has existed and will 
exist eternally. They believe that it has three divi- 
sions, viz. lower, middle, and upper, and that there are 
numerous hells and heavens. AH existing things are 
arranged under the two great Tattvas of Jiva, * living 
soul,' and A-jiva, ' inanimate objects.' Of living 
souls there are three kinds : a. Nitya-siddha^ ' ever 
perfect,' as the Jina ; b. Mtiktdiinan, ' liberated soul ' ; 
c. Baddhdtman^ ' bound soul,' or one bound by works 
and worldly associations. Material objects are some- 
times classed under a Tattva called Fudgala, and some 
make seven, others nine Tattvas. 

There are three * gems,' which together effect the 
soul's liberation (moksha) ; viz. a. right intuition, b. 
right knowledge, c. right conduct. This last consists 



224 HINDUISM. 

in observing five duties or vows of self-restraint, 
thus : 

I. Do not kill or injure. Strict Jainas carry this to so preposte- 
rous an extreme that they strain water before drinking it, sweep 
the ground with a bmsh before treading on it, never eat or drink 
in the dark, and sometimes wear mushn before their mouths to 
prevent the risk of swallowing minute insects. INIoreover, they 
never eat figs or any frait containing seed, nor will they even 
touch flesh-meat with their hands. 2. Do not tell lies. 3. Steal 
not. 4. Be chaste and temperate in thought, word, and deed. 
5. Desire nothing immoderately. 

There are two classes of Jainas, as of Buddhists ; 
viz. S'rdvakas, those who engage in secular occupa- 
tions, and Yatis, monks or ascetics, who are required 
to pluck out their hair or wear it cropped short. The 
latter often congregate in Mathas or 'monasteries,' 
being called Sadhu when not monastic. 

It should be noted that most Jainas have a sort 
of modified belief^ in the Hindu gods, especially 
Brahma, Vishnu, Siva, and Ganesa, with their con- 
sorts, as beings subordinated to the Jainas; and 
representations of these deities are sometimes observ- 
able in the precincts of their temples. They are even 
observers of caste practices, and claim to be regarded 
as Hindus, though rejecting the Hindi! Veda. In 
many parts of India the priests of Jaina temples are 
Brahmans. 

Tlie Ca7i'akas. 

I There is no such philosophical sect as that of the 
Carvakas at present in India, but that a materialistic 
school of thinkers so called once existed, and exercised 
no slight influence on sceptical philosophy, is proved 
by the frequent allusions to them in Indian writings. 
No account of Hinduism, therefore, would be com- 
plete without a brief statement of their opinions. 
Nothing is known about C^arvaka, the founder of 



APPENDIX. 



225 



this materialistic school. He may be styled the Indian 
Pyrrho or Epicurus, and his system is the worst form 
of all heresies. On that account, perhaps, it was 
honoured with the first place in Madhavacarya's com- 
pendium of all the philosophical systems, called Sarva- 
darsana-sangraha. In the Santi-parvan of the Maha- 
bharata (1410, &c.) there is a story of a Rakshasa 
named C'arvaka, who, in the disguise of a mendicant 
Brahman, reviled Yudhishthira during his triumphant 
entry into Hastina-pura, and uttered profaue and 
heretical doctrines. He was, however, soon detected, 
and the real Brahmans, filled with fury, killed him 
on the spot. This legend may possibly rest on some 
basis of fact. 

The creed of the C'arvakas, who are sometimes 
called Lokayatas or Lokayatikas,^ is said to have 
been derived from the Varhaspatya Sutras (Aphorisms 
of Vrihaspati). They reject all the Pramanas, or 
' sources of true knowledge,' except Pratyaksha, ' per- 
ception by the senses' (see p. 188) ; they admit only 
four Tattvas or ' eternal principles,' viz. earth, air, fire, 
and water ; and from these intelligence (caitajiya) is 
alleged to be produced ; they affirm that the soul is 
not different from the body ; and, lastly, they assert 
that all the phenomena of the world are spontaneously 
produced, without even the help of Adrishta (see 
p. 51). Their views may be summed up with a ver- 
sion of a passage in the Sarva-darsana-sangraha, 
setting forth their opinions according to the supposed 
teaching of Vrihaspati. The sentiments, it will be 
perceived, are worthy of the most sceptical, material- 
istic, and epicurean of European writers : 

No heaven exists, no final liberation, 

No soul, no other world, no rights of caste, 



' By some this name is given to a subdivision of the C'arvakas, 
or the materialistic school. 



226 HINDUISM. 

No recompense for acts ; the Agnihotra, 

The triple Veda, triple self-command,' 

And all the dust and ashes of repentance — 

These yield a means of livelihood for men 

Devoid of intellect and manliness. 

If victims slaughtered at a sacrifice 

Are raised to heavenly mansions,- why should not 

The sacrificer immolate his father ? 

If offerings of food. can satisfy^ 

Hungi-y departed spirits, why suppiy 

The man who goes a journey Mith provisions ? 

His friends at home can feed him with oblations. 

If those abiding in celestial spheres 

Are filled with food presented upon earth, 

"Why should not those who live in upper stories 

Be nourished by a meal spread out below ? 

While life endures, let life be spent in ease 

And merriment ;* let a man borrow money 

From all his friends and feast on melted butter. 

How can this body when reduced to dust 

Revisit earth ? and if a ghost can pass 

To other worlds, why does not strong affection 

For those he leaves behind attract him back ? 

The costly rites enjoined for those who die 

Are a mere means of livelihood devised. 

By sacerdotal cunning — nothing more. 

The three composers of the triple Veda 

Were rogues, or evil spirits, or buffoons. 

The recitation of mysterious words 

And jabber* of the priests is simple nonsense. 



* Tri-daitda^ * control over thoughts, words, and actions, de- 
noted by the three Dandas or staves carried by ascetics.' See 
Manu, XII. lO, ii. 

* See Manu, V. 42, and p. 38 of this volume. Cf. Maha- 
bharata, Asvamedhika-parvan 793, &:c. 

' This is a hit at the S'raddha, when (as we have explained at 
p. 66) oblations of cakes and libations of water arc made to the 
spirits of deceased fathers, grandfathers, and progenitors. 

^ * Let us eat and drink, for to-morrow we die' (i Cor. xv. 
32). Compare such Horatian precepts as Epod. xiii. 3, &c. 

* Two curious Vedic words, jarbkarT and hirpharJ, are given 
in the text as specimens of what I suppose modern scoffers might 
call ' Vedic slang. They occur in Rig-veda X. 106, 6, and 



APPENDIX. 227 

As a conclusion to our Appendix, we commend the 
foregoing curious commentary on the religious system 
of the Hindus by an enemy within their own camp, 
to the special attention of the Christian Missionary 
in India. The satirical spirit it evinces is very differ- 
ent from that we have recommended, at the end of 
our 1 2 th chapter, as likely to be most effective in 
contending with the Hydra Hinduism. 



Nirukta XIII, 5. For their explanation, see Bohtlingk and 
Roth, and my Sanskrit-English Dictionary (published by 
^lacmillan & Co. for the University of Oxford). 



PRONUNCIATION OF LETTERS IN WORDS OF 
SANSKRIT ORIGIN. 











VOWELS. 






a 




as in 


xma\. 




Vi 


IS in 


merr/ly. 


a 






\ax, father. 


ri 




mar/ne. 


i 






mi. 




e 




pr^y. 


i 






pol/ce 




ai 




«/sle. 


u 






itiW. 









g^- 


u 






r//de. 




an 




Wawi (German) 










CONSONANTS. 








k 




as in 


X'ill, see/'. 








kh 




9t 


mkhoxxi. 








S 




»» 


gyx\\ do,r. 








gh 




JJ 


lo^^y^Ut. 








71 


before k or g, 


as in si//k, si;/g. 







e as ch in cXwxxch (rurr). 

ch as c//// in chur^r/z/nll. 

/ as in /et. 

y^ as dgeh in he^^//og (he/7/og). 

n betore c andy, as in i«ch, si/zge. 



t 


as in 


/rue. 


tk 


)) 


an//nll. 


d 


9» 


a'rum. 


dh 


>> 


re^//aired. 


n 


it 


«o;/e. 


t 


1i 


wa/er (in Ireland). 


th 


f» 


nu/-/zook (but more dental). 


d 


>» 


^ice (more like //i in i/iis). 


dh 


>» 


a«7/ere (but more dental). 


n 


>> 


;^ot, in 


^, 


}) 


/ut, si/. 


ph 


>> 


u///ill. 


6 


>» 


^ear, ru(^. 


bh 


»> 


a<5/ior. 


in 


»» 


7;/ap, jam. 


y 


») 


yet. 


r 


>> 


red, year. 


I 


»> 


/ie. 


V 


>» 


me (like w after consonants). 


/ 


>> 


jure, session. 


sh 


>> 


s/iun, hus/i. 


s 


>> 


sir, hiss. 


h 




/lit. 



^ i.e. Visarga, or a distinctly audible aspirate. 



-\ 



INDEX. 



Abhava (non-existence), 191, 

192. 
Abhidharma, 77. 
Acara, 55, 71- 
Acarya, 160. 
Adhvaryu priests, 20, 
Adi-grantha of the Sikhs, 142 (n). 
Adi-parvan, 112. 
Aditi, 22. 

Adityas, 23, 26 ; (twelve), 167. 
A-drishta, 51, 192. 
A-dvaita (non-dualism), 204. 
Agarwalas, 162. 
Ages (the four), 121. 
Aghora-pathins, or Aghorins, 

148. 
Agnayi, 27. 
Agni, 24. 
Agni-purana, 1 1 8. 
Agnishtoma sacrifice, 40. 
Ahankara, 195, 197. 
Ahirs (herdsmen), 164. 
Akasa-mukhins, 148. 
Alexander the Great, expedition 

of, 4. 
Allahabad. See Prayaga. 
Amara-kantak, 178. 
Amara-nath, 179. 
Amritsar, 179, 180. 
Ananda-tirtha, 140. 
Animals (sacred), 169, 170. 
Anna-prasana, 59. 



Anna-purna (the goddess of 
plenty), 166. 

Antyeshti, * funeral rites,' 65. 

Anumana (inference), 188. 

Anusasana-parvan, 113. 

A ranya-kana, no. 

Aranyakas, 44. 

Ardha-narl, 126. 

Arjuna, 112, 208. 

Arka plant, 171. 

Arsha form of marriage, 62. 

Aryans, 3 ; language of, 3 ; set- 

_ tlement of, 3. 

Aryavarta (district), 2, 3. 

Ascetics (Buddhist), 78; (Hin- 
du), 147, 148. 

Asoka (King), 73, 74; (inscrip- 
tions), 4. 

_ „ (shrub), 171. 

Asramas of a Brahman's life, 59, 

Asramavasika-parvan, 113. 

Asura form of marriage, 62. 

Asva - medha, * horse - sacrifice,* 

_40. 

Asvamedhika-parvan, 113. 

Asvini, 27. 

Asvins, 24. 

Atoms, 192. 

Atharva-veda, 20. 

Avantika (Oujein), 177. 

AvasarpinI (descending cycle), 
222. 



230 



HINDUISM. 



Avayavas (members of a syllo- 
gism), 1 88, 189. 
Avidya, 205. 
Avyakta, 195. 
AwadhI dialect, 7. 
Ayodhya, no, 177. 
Ayodhya-kanda, no, 
Ayogava, a mixed caste, 57, 153. 

Badarayana, 46, 203. 
Badari-kedara, or Badaii-nath, 

178. 
Bahais (carpenters), 163. 
Baladevas, 223. 
Bala-kanda, no. 
Bali, 63(11. 2). 
Bandarwars, 162. 
Bangis (sweepers), 164. 
Banias, or Baniyas, 162. 
Banjaras, 162. 
Banyan- tree, 171. 
Benares, 174, 175, 177. 
Bengali language, 7. 
Bhagavad-glta, 206-221. 
Bhagavata-purana, 118, 1 19, 120. 
Bhairava ('Siva), 94. 
Bhairava-natha, 166. 
Bhairavi, 95. 
Bhaktas, 136. 

Bhakti, 115, 136, 208, 209. 
Bhakti-marga, 12. 
Bhakti-sastra, 15. 
Bhakti-sutras, n6. 
Bharata, i. 
Bharata-khanda, i. 
Bharata- varsha, i, 
Bhaskaracarya, 139. 
Bhatiyas, 162. 
Bhats, 163. 
Bhatta-prayaga, 177. 
Bhava-bhiiti, in. 
BhavanT (a shrine), 179. 
Bhavishya-purana, 118. 
Bhikshu, * religious devotee,' 59 : 

(Buddhist), 78. 
Bli^a, 112. 



Bhima-sankara, 178. 
Bhlshma-parvan, 113. 
Bhlstis (water-carriers), 164. 
Bhojpurl dialect, 7. 
Bhur, 61. 

Bhuta-suddhi, 132. 
Bhuta-yajna, 63. 
Bhuvar, 61. 

Bihistis (water-carriers), 164. 
Bindu (a Sarovara), 179. 
Bodhi-tree, 75. 
Brahma. See Brahman. 
Brahma (the god), 26, 87-90. 
Brahma form of marriage, 62. 
Brahma-carin, 'unmarried stu- 
dent,' 59. 
Brahma-jijnasa, 204. 
Brahman, 1 7, 204 ; the supi-eme 

soul, 49 ; meaning of, 86. 
Brahmana portion of the Veda, 

14, 18, 33-38. 
Brahmanda-purana, 118. 
Brahmanism, 13 ; Buddhism and 

Brahmanism contrasted, 74. 
Brahmans (priests), 34, 56-63 ; 

divisions of, 159. 
Brahma-purana, 118. 
Brahma Samaj, 149. 
Brahma-yajna, 63. 
Brahma-vaivarta-purana, 118. 
Braj dialect, 7. 
Buddha, 72, 74, 75 ; meaning 

of, 74 ; incarnation of Vishnu, 

108. 
Buddhi (intellect), 196. 
Buddhlndriyani, 196 (n). 
Buddhism, 72 ; and Brahmanism 

contrasted, 74. 

'Caitanya, 146. 

'Caitanyas, 138, 146, 147. 

'Cakra-vartins, 54, 223. 

'Camars (leather-cutters), 164. 

'Camunda, 124. 

'Canakya, 72 (n). 

'Candala, a mixed caste, 57, 153. 



INDEX. 



231 



'Candl, 124. 

'Candi-mahatmya, 119. 

'Candra Sen (Keshab), 149. 

'Candra-gupta, 4, 73, 74. 

'Carvakas, 224. 

Caste, 151-159. 

Castes (the four), 56, 57, 152 ; 
(modern divisions), 159; (ori- 
gin of mixed castes), 152, 153. 

Categories (seven), 190, 191. 

'Caturvarnya, 56. 

Caula, 59. 

Ceylon, 82, 11 1. 

'Chandas, 15. 

'Citra-kote, 179. 

Confluences (seven), 177, 178. 

Confucius, 47. 

Conjevaram, 177. 

Cows, reverence for, 169. 

'Cuda-karman, 59. 

Custard-apple, 171. 

Daiva form of marriage, 62. 
Dakore, I So. 
Dakshinacarins, 126. 
Dandakaranya (the Deccan), 166. 
Danda-pani, 166. 
Darsanas (systems of philosophy), 

14, 46, 187-206. 
Dasahara, 183, 
Dasaratha, no. 
Dasra, 24. 
Deccan, 166. 
Deva-prayaga, 178. 
Deva-yajna, 6^. 
Devi-mahatmya, 118. 
Devi, 123. 
Dluirjatl, 93. 
Dharma (caste duties), 77, 202, 

208. 
Dharma-sastra, 15. 
Dhigvana, a mixed caste, 57. 
Dhobis (washennen), 164. 
Dhrita-rashtra, 112. 
Diet, 64. 
Digambara, 93, 221. 



DIpall, or Divall, 1S4. 
Dirzis (tailors), 164. 
Dola-yatra, 182. 
Doms (chair-makers), 164. 
Dravida Brahmans, 159. 
Dravidians, 2 ; language of, 8, 9, 
Dravya (substance), 190, 191. 
DrishadvatI river, 55. 
Drishtanta (example in logic)^ 

'189. 
Drona-parvan, 113. 
Durba grass, 171. 
Durga, 95, 124. 
Durga-puja, 183. 
Duryodhana, 112. 
Dvapara age, 12 1. 
Dvaraka, 114, 177, 178. 
Dvi-ja, 'twice-born,' 58. 
Dyaus, 22, 24. 
Dyaush-pitar, 22. 

Eating and drinking, 155-157. 

Food, 155-157. 

Gadhada, 180. 

Gandharva form of marriage, 
62. 

Ganesa, 62, 165. 

Ganesa-caturthi, 183. 

Ganga-putra, 160. 

Ganga-sagara, 173, 178. 

Ganges, 172. 

Gangotri, 173, 178. 

Garbhadana, 59. 

Garbha-lambhana, 59. 

Garuda-purana, 118. 

Gauda Brahmans, 159. 
I Gaurl, 124. 

Gautama, 75. 

Gaya, 75, 176. 
i Gayatrl, 61. 
I Gaya-wal, 160. 
I Ghrishnesvara, 179. 
! Gita-govinda, 139. 



232 



HINDUISM. 



Godavarl river, 173 
Gods (thirty-three), 25. 
Gond language, 9. 
Gosain, 144. 
GosainjI, 143. 
Gotania, 46, 75, 189. 
Gotras, 160, 

Grahas (nine planets), 180. 
Griha-stha, 'householder,' 59. 
Grihya-sutra, 15, 53. 
Gujarat! language, 8. 
Guna. (quality), 190, 191. 
Gunas (three), 88, 194, 195. 
Gurjara Brahmans, 159. 

Hajjams (barbers), 164. 
Halwals (confectioners), 164. 
Hanuman, 166. 
Hari-dwar 177. 
Harivansa-i irvan, 114. 
Hell, 51. 

Hetu (reason in logic), 1 88. 
Hindi language, 7. 
Hindu, origin of name, 2. 
Hinduism, 13, 16. 
Hindustan, I. 
Hindustani language, 7. 
Hiouen Thsang, 81. 
Hiranya-garbha, 198. 
Holl festival, 182. 



Idol-worship, 165. 

Incarnations, 103 ; Vishnu's ten, 
104-108. 

India, different names of, i, 2 ; 
population of, 2 ; immigra- 
tions into, 2-6 ; conquests of, 
4 ; fourteen languages of, 7- 
9 ; sacred language of, 13. 

Indra, 23, 167. 

Indrani, 27. 

Indus river, 2. 

Investiture with the cord, 60, 61. 

Isvara, 205. 

Itihasa, 15, ill. 



Jagan-nath, 175, 178, 

Jagan-matri, 93, 95. 

[aimini, 46, 201. 

Jaina, 222. 

Jainism, 221-224. 

Jambu-dvlpa, 2. 

Jangamas, 148. 

JanmashtamT, 183. 

Jata-karman, 59. 

Jats, or Jats, 161, 

Jaya-deva, 139. 

Jina, 222. 

JIvatman, the individual soul, 

50, 192, 200, 206. 
Jnana-marga, 1 1. 
Jumna river, 172. 
Jumnotrl, 178. 
Jvala-mukhT, 179. 
Jyotir-matha, 179, 
Jyotisha, 15. 

Jyotishi (family astrologer), 62. 
Jyotishtoma sacrifice, 40. 

Kabir, 141, 142. 

Kahars (palankin-bearers), 164. 

Kala, * Time,' 92. 

Kali age, 121. 

Kali (the goddess), 92, 95, 124, 

125. 
Kalki or Kalkin, incarnation of 

Vishnu, 108. 
Kalpa-sutra, 15. 
Kama (god of love), 167. 
Kama-dhenu, 169. 
Kanada, 46, 190. 
Kanarese language, 8. 
KanaujI dialect, 7. 
KancI (Konjeveram), 177. 
Kanyakubja Brahmans, 159. 
Kapila, 46, 193. 
Kapila-vastu, 74. 
Karana, a mixed caste, 57. 
Karma-marga, 1 1. 
Karman (act), 190, 191. 
Karma-phala, 55. 
Karma- vipaka, 51. 



INDEX. 



233 



Karmendriyani, 196. 
Karna-parvan, 113. 
Karna-prayaga, 178. 
Karnata Brahmans, 159. 
Karna-vedha, 60. 
Karttika-purnima, 184. 
Karttikeya, 166. 
Kaseras (braziers), 163. 
Kasi (Benares), 177. 
Kasmlri language, 8. 
Kathaks (musicians), 163. 
Kaulopanishad, 131. 
Kauravas, or Kuru px-inces, 112, 

113- 

Kaverl river, 173. 

Kavya, 15. 

Kaya-stha, a mixed caste, 57, 

163. 
Kedara, or Kedaresvara, 178. 
Kerala (Malabar), 137. 
Kesanta, 59. 
Ketu (the planet), 166. 
Khatrls, 162. 
Khond language, 9. 
Kishkindhya-kanda, III. 
Kistna river, 173. 
Kodagu language, 9. ' 
Kolarian language, 9. 
Kolls (weavers), 163. 
Konkani dialect, 8. 
Kota language, 9. 
Krishna, 208. 

,, (incarnation of Vishnu), 

106. 
Krita age, 121. 

Kshatriyas (soldiers), 35, 56, 57. 
Kulis (coolies or labourers), 164. 
Kumarika-khanda, I. 
Kumbhars (potters), 164. 
Kurma incarnation, 105. 
Kurma-purana, 118. 
Kuru princes, 112, 113. 
Kuru-kshetra, 113, 179. 
Kusa grass, 171. 
Kuvera, 167. 



Lakshmi, 124. 

Languages spoken in India, 7-9. 

Lanka (Ceylon), iii. 

Linga, 92,93, 165. 

Linga-purana, 1 1 8. 

Linga- sarira, 65. 

Linga vats, 148. 

Lobars (blacksmiths), 163. 

Lokayatas, or Lokayatikas, 225. 

Lonaris (preparers of salt), 164. 

Madhavacarya, 141. 
Madhva, or Madhvacarya, 141. 
Madhvacaryas, 138, 141. 
Mahabalesvar, 178. 
Maha-bharata, 15, 111-II4. 

,, -bhutas (five), 196. 

,, -brahmana, 160. 
Maha-deva, 123. 
Maha-devi, 123. 
Mahakala, or Mahakalesvara, 

178. 
Maha-lakshmi (a shrine), 1 79. 

,, -patra, 160. 

,, -rashtra Brahmans, 159. 
Mahat, 196. 
Mahatmyas, 175. 
Maha-vidyas (ten), 125. 

,, -yajnas (five), 63. 
Mahishya, a mixed caste, 57. 
Maithila Brahmans, 159. 
Makaras (five), 127. 
Makara-sankranti festival, 1 8 1. 
Malabar, 137. 
Malayalam language, 8. 
Malls (gardeners), 164. 
Mallahs (boatmen), 164. 
Mallikarjuna, 178. 
Manas, 196. 

Manasa (a Sarovara), 179. 
Manavas, 53. 
Mantra, 98. 

,, portion of the Veda, 14, 

18. 
Mantras, 127, 128. 
Manu, code of, 53-69. 



334 



HINDUISM. 



Manushya-yajna, 63. 
Markandeya-purana, 1 18. 
Marriage, 155; eight forms of, 62. 
Maruts (The), 23. 
Matha (a nionastery), 224. 
JNIathuru (Muttra), 177, 
Matris, or Matrikas, 124. 
Matsya incarnation, 104. 
INIausala-parvan, 1 14. 
Maya (illusion), 195. ^ 

,, (Haridwar), 177. 
Megasthenes, 4, 73. 
Mela (religious fair), 182. 
Mewarl dialect, 7. 
Mihtars (sweepers), 164. 
Mimansa system of philosophy, 

46, 201-203. 
Mitakshara, 70. 
Mitra, 22. 
MocTs, 16. 

Mohun Roy (Raja Ram), 149. 
Monkeys, 170. 
Mudra, 127, 130. 
Muhammadans, 5, 6. 
Murdhavasikta, a mixed caste, 

57. 
Muttra, 177. 

Naga-nath, or Nagesvara, 1 79. 
Naga-pancami, 183. 
Nagas (serpents), 169. 
Nakshatras (27 constellations), 

180. 
Nakula, 112. 
Nama-karana, 59. 
Nanak Shah, 142. 
Nanda-prayaga, 178. 
Naradlya-purana, 1 18. 
Narayana, lOi ; (a Sarovara), 1 79. 
Nara-sinha incarnation, 106. 
Narbada river, 173. 
Nasatya, 24. 
Nasik, 179. 
Nath-dvar, 180. 
Naus (barbers), 164. 
Nava-grahah (nine planets), 166. 



Nava-ratri festival, 183. 
Nepali language, 10. 
Nigamana (conclusion in logic)> 

188. 
Nimbarka, or Nimbaditya, 138. 
Nimbarkas, 138, 139. 
Nirnaya (in logic), 189. 
Nirukta, 15. 
Nishkramana, 59. 
Non-Aryan races of India, *]. 
Nyaya system of philosophy, 46, 

187-190. 

OjHA, 160. 

Om (the mystical word), ^1, 

200. 
Om-kara, 178. 
Oraon language, 9. 
Oriya language, 8. 
Oswals, 162. 



Padarthas (seven categories), 
190. 

Padma-purana, 1 18. 

Paisaca fonn of marriage, 62. 

Pakhtu language, 10. 

Palitana, 180. 

Pampa (a Sarovara), 179. 

Panca-lakshana, 117. 

Pandavas, or Pandu princes, 
112. 

Pandharpur, 120 (n), 147, 176. 

Panjabi language, 8. 

Parama-hansas, 148. 

Paramatman, the Supreme Soul, 
49, 192, 206. 

Paramitas (six), 79. 

Parasu-rama, 167 ; incarnation 
of, 106. 

Parasurama-kshetra, 167. 

Parikrama, 173. 

Parikshit, 179. 

Parivrajaka (a religious mendi- 
cant), 59 ; (Buddhist), 78. 

Parsis, 5. 



INDEX. 



235 



Parvan, 181. 

ParvatI, 95, 

Pashtu language, 10. 

Pasis (village watchmen), 164. 

Pasupatas, 148. 

Pasu-pati ('Siva), 148. 

Patali-putra (Patna), 4, 73. 

Patanjali, 46, 200. 

Philosophy, six systems of, 45, 

46, 187-206. 
Pilgrimage, places of, 1 71 -180; 

why undertaken, 171, 172. 
Pinda, 66, 68. 
Pipal tree, 170. 
Pitri-yajna, 6^. 
Places (sacred), 170-180. 
Planets (temples of the nine), 

166. 
Pongal festival, 182. 
Prabhasa, 179. 
Pradakshina, 173. 
Pradhana, 195. 
Praja-pati, 90. 

Prajapatya form of marriage, 62, 
Prakriti, 194-199. 
Prama (true knowledge), 52, 

18S, 197. 
Pramanas (four), 188 ; (three), 

197. 
Prameya, 189. 
Pratijna (logical proposition), 

188. 
Prativasudevas, 223. 
Pratyaksha, 188. 
Prayaga (Allahabad), 176; (a 

confluence), 177. 
Prayag-wal, 160. 
Prayascitta, 55, 71. 
Prayojana (in logic), 189. 
Priests. See Brahmans. 
Prithivi, 24. 

Pukkasa, a mixed caste, 57. 
Punsavana, 59. 
Purana, 15, 1 15-122; subjects 

treated of in a, 117. 
Purbi dialect, 7. 



Purna-prajna, 140. 

Purusha, the Supreme Soul, 49, 

195, 200. 
Purusha-sukta, 30. 
Purva-mimansa, 201. 
Purva-paksha, 202. 
Pushkara (a Sarovara), 179. 
Pushti-marga, 144. 
Pythagoras, 47. 

Rahu (the planet), 166. 

Raja-pur, 180. 

Rajas (the Guna), 88, 1 1 7, 194, 

Rajasa Puranas, 117, 118, 

Rajmahal language, 9. 

Rakshasa form of marriage, 62. 

Rakshasas, 166. 

Ram Mohun Roy, 149. 

Rama (incarnation of Vishnu), 

106, no. 
Rama-kshetra (the Deccan), 

166. 
Ramananda, 141. 
Ramanandas, 138, 141, 142. 
Rama-nath, or Ramesvara, 179. 
Ramanuja, 139. 
Ramanujas, 138, 140. 
Ramayana, 15, 109- in. 
Ramesvara, 178, 179. 
Rangarls (dyers), 164. 
Rastogis, 162. 
Ravana, 2, no, in, 166. 
Renuka (a shrine), 179. 
Rig-veda, 19. 
Rishis, 17. 

Rivers, sacred, 172, 173. 
Rosaries, 61. 
Rudra, 92. 
Rudra-prayaga, 178. 
Rudras, 25, 167. 
Rudra-yamala Tantra, 13 1. 

Sabarmati river, 173. 
'Sabda (verbal authority), 188. 
Sabha-parvan, 112. 
R 



236 



HINDUISM. 



Sac-cid-ananda, 52, 195, 204. 

Sacrifices, human, 36, 37 ; of 
animals, 38-41 ; of the Soma 
plant, 39 ; abolition of ani- 
mal, 42. 

Sad-acara, 55. 

Sadhyas, 167. 

Sages (seven), 160. 

Sahadeva, 112. 

Sahajananda, 145. 

Saiva, 97. 

'Saivism, 97-100. 

'Saktas, 98, 122-132. 

'Sakti, 92, 123, 199. 

'Saktism, 122-133. 

'Salagrama stones, 171. 

Salokya, 51. 

'Salya-parvan, 113. 

Samaj (Brahma), 149. 

Samanodakas, 68. 

Samanya (generality of pro- 
perties), 190, 191. 

Samavartana, 59, 62. 

Samavaya (coinherence), 191. 

Sama-veda, 20. 

Samayacarika-sutra, 15. 

'Sami tree, 171. 

Samipya, 51. 

Sampradayas, 135. 

Samsaya (in logic), 189. 

Sandhya, 6^. 

Sandilya, 1 16. 

Sandrokottus ( = 'Candra-gupta), 
4, 72. , 

'Sankaracar)'a, 137, 203, 206. 

Silnkhya system of philosophy, 
46, 193-200. 

Sannyasin (religious devotee), 
59, 65. 

Sanskaras (twelve), 59. 

Sanskrit (language), 13 ; litera- 
_ture), 13, 14. 

'Santi-parvan, 113. 

Sapinda, 69. 

SaptapadI, 6;^. 

'Sarada-malha, 179. 



Sarasvata Brahmans, 159. 
SarasvatI (river), 355, 95, note I, 

172; (the goddess), 90, 124. 
Sarayu river, 173. 
Sarovara (divine lakes), 179. 
Sarupya, 51. 

Sarva-darsana-sangraha, 225. 
'Sastrl, 160. 
SatI (Suttee), 149. 
'Satrunjaya, 179. 
Sattva (the Guna), 88, 117, 194, 

195. 

Sattvika Puranas, 117, 118. 

Sauptika-parvan, 113. 

Sayujya, 51,52. 

Sects (Hindu), 134, 135. 

Seleukos Nikator, 4, 73. 

'Sesha (the serpent), 170. 

Shap-darsanas (six systems of 
philosophy), 46. 

'Siksha, 15. 

'Siksha-patrl, 146 (n). 

'Siddhanta (in logic), 189. 

Siddhas, 167. 

Simantonnayana, 59. 

SindhI language, 8. 

Sindhu river, I. 

Sins (five great), 64. 

'Sltala (the goddess of small- 
pox), 166. 

'Siva, 26, 87-96, 98. 

'Siva-purana, 118. 

'Siva-ratri, 182. 

Sita, 110, III. 

Skanda, 166. 

Skanda-purana, iiS. 

Smarta-sutra, 15. 

Smriti, 14. 

Somnath, 178. 

Sonars (goldsmiths), 163. 

Soul, 49, 50. 

'Sraddhas (funeral rites), 64-68. 

'Sramanas (Buddhist ascetics), 
78. ■ 

'Srauta-sutra, 15. 

'Sravakas (Jaina), 224. 



INDEX. 



237- 



Sri-nath, iSo. 
Sringerl-matha, 179. 
'Sri-pancami, 182. 
'Srivatsa mark, 120 (n), 
'Srotriya Brahman, 160, 
'Sruti, 14, 18. 
Stones (sacred), 171. 
Strl-parvan, 113. 
'Sudras, 35, 56, 57. 
Sundara-kanda, ill. 
Surya, 24. 

Sutars (carpenters), 163. 
Sutra, 34 (n), 46. 

,, of Buddha, 77. 
Svami-narayana, 145. 
'Sva-paka, 153. 
Svar, 61. 

Svargarohanika-parvan, 1 14. 
'Svtetambaras, 221. 
Syllogism (logical), 188. 



Tagore, 149, 
Tailinga Brahmans, 159. 
Takshaka (the serpent), 170. 
Tamas (the Guna), 88, 117, 194, 

195- 
Tamasa Puranas, 117, 118. 
Tamil language, 8. 
Tanmatras (five), 196. 
Tantis (weavers), 163. 
Tantra, 15. 
Tantras, 122-132. 
Tantrism, 122-133. 
Tapi-mula, 17S. 
Tapti river, or Tapi, 173. 
Tarka (refutation in logic), 189. 
Tattva, 194, 
Telis (oilmen), 164. 
Telugxi language, 8. 
Tilaka mark, 98. 
Tirthas, 171. 
Tithi (a lunar day), 181. 
Toda language, 9. 
Transmigration of souls, 42, 58. 
Treta age, 121. 



Tri-murti (Vedic), 21;; (later), 

87. 
Tri-pitaka, 77. 
Tri-pundra, 98. 
Tryambaka-nath, 178. 
Tukarama, 147, 176. 
Tulsl plant, 170. 
Tulu language, 9. 
Turanian races, 2. 

Udaharana (major premiss), 

188. 
Udasa, 146. 
Udasi, 142. 
Udgatri priests, 20. 
Udyoga-parvan, 1 1 2. 
Uma, 95, 124. 

Upamana (comparison), 188. 
Upanaya (minor premiss), 188. 
Upanayana, 59, 60. 
Upanishad portion of the Veda, 

14, 18, 43-45. 
Upa-purana, 15 ; (eighteen), 

122. 
Upasakas (Buddhist laymen), 78. 
Urdhva-pundra, 98. 
Ushas, 24. 

Utkala Brahmans, 159. 
Utsarpini (ascending cycle), 222. . 
Uttara-kanda, in. 
Uttara-paksha, 202. 
Uttara-mlmansa, 201. 

Vatdika Brahman, 160. 
Vaidya (a mixed caste), 57, 163. 
Vaidya-nath, 178. 
Vajapeya sacrifice, 40. 
Vairagis, 142, 148. 
Vaiseshika system of philosophy, 

46, 190-193. 
Vaishnava, 97. 
Vaishnavism, 97. 
Vallabhacarya, 142 ; disciples 

of, 143. 
Vallabhacaryas, 138, 1 42- 1 46. 
Valmiki, no. 



238 



HINDUISM. 



Vamacarins, 126. 

Vamana incarnation, 1 06. 

Vamana-purana, 1 18. 

Vana-parvan, 112. 

Vanaprastha (anchorite), 59, 64. 

Varaha incarnation, 105. 

Varaha-purana, 118. 

Vardhana-matha, 179. 

Varuna, 22, 23, 28, 167. 

Vamnani, 27. 

Vasudcvas, 223. 

Vasuki (the serpent), 170. 

Vasus (eight), 167. 

Vayu, 23. 

Vayu-purana, 118. 

Veda, meaning of, 17. 

Vedangas (six), 15. 

A^edanta system of philosophy, 

46. 
Vedas, 19, 20, 
Vena river, 173. 
Vijas, 127, 128. 
Vijaya-dasamI, 183. 
Vikaras (sixteen), 196. 
Vilva tree, 1 70. 
Vinaya, 77. 
Virata-parvan, 112. 
Visesha (particularity), 190, 191. 
Vishnu, the god, 87-91, 100- 

108. 
Vishnu-prayaga, 177. 
Vishnu-purana, 118, 120-122. 
Visva-devas (ten), 167. 



Visva-nath, 17S. 
Vlthoba, 120, (n), 147, 176. 
Vivaha, 59. 
Vritra, 23. 
Vj-ishatha, 148. 
Vyahritis (three), 61. 
Vyapaka (in logic), 188. 
Vyapti (in logic), 188. 
Vyapya (in logic), 188. 
Vyasa, 112, 116,146, 203. 
Vyavahara, 55, 71. 

Yajnavalkya, code of, 70, 71. 

Yajnika Brahman, 160. 

Yajnopavita, 60. 

Yajur-veda, 20. 

Yama, 167. 

Yantras (mystical diagrams), 

129. 
Yatis (Jaina), 224. 
Yoga system of philosophy, 46, 

200, 201. 
Yoga (concentration of the 

mind), 209, 210, 
Yogesvarl (a shrine), 179. 
Yogin, or Yogi, 201. 
Yogini, 95, 124, 
Yoni, 95. 

Yuddha-kanda, III. 
Yudhishthira, 112. 

Zand-avasta, 5. 
Zoroaster 5, 47. 



WYMAN AND SONS, FKINTEKS, GREAT Ql-EEN-STKEET, LONDON, W.C 





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